Stop talking about NBA ratings. please

Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to receive it in your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Got feedback for the Layup Lines team? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Mike Sykes

Happy Friday, folks! Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you had a fantastic week and have an even better weekend ahead.

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the NBA Cup over the past 24 hours. More specifically on the subject of who is – or, I guess, who is no — I look at it.

A a report from Nielsen on Thursday revealed that viewership for the league’s new tournament was down 10 percent from the previous year. Group play in the tournament averaged 1.5 million viewers on TNT for the eight games it hosted and 1.16 million viewers on ESPN for the six games it hosted.

This season, the group game averaged 1.33 million viewers on ESPN and TNT, according to the report, which is a slight drop in ratings.

Of course, there was a lot of buzz and debate on social media about whether or not this meant the NBA was dead. People have abandoned all these theories as to why this slight decline occurs. some people think everything is from the three points. Some people (who I won’t link to here) think the league is too “woke” or whatever. Some are blaming load management.

What I’m here to tell you is this: I don’t care about any of that. And you should probably care a lot less.

I know, I know. You’re probably thinking, “Sykes, the ratings are going down! That’s not good, buddy!” And I get it. Under certain circumstances, this would be correct.

But none of these things really matter. Not anymore, anyway.

It would be one thing if the NBA was in the middle of tough negotiations over a broadcast deal, but the time for ratings talk is over, folks. The league signed a $76 billion television deal comprising three different networks (technically four s TNT license Inside the NBA) and two different streaming services. This deal wouldn’t have happened if the ratings drops were such a bad sign. But he did. You’ll be watching the NBA on Prime and Peacock next year.

The only reason TV ratings exist is for proof of concept. Networks want to know what people are watching so they know what to put their money into. Advertisers want to know where they should place their ads. Despite all the doom and gloom, the NBA’s ratings aren’t bad enough to dissuade any of these organizations from working with the league going forward.

The ratings ignore that the NBA is a huge global product and don’t accurately measure the league’s social impact. It might not be the biggest hit on TV, but it’s clear that the league certainly is he doesn’t lack fans when you look at the social numbers. This is something that advertisers and networks are interested in as well.

Ratings are a small piece of a much larger puzzle. Making doomsday judgments about them is extremely reductive in 2024. Making them the center of the conversation when it comes to the league is the wrong way to go about it.

So let’s all be better for it moving forward, shall we? No more talking about grades. At least not until it’s time to discuss the next TV deal.

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Does Brony get it now?

Bronie James played his first game away with the South Bay Lakers on Thursday, and it may have been his best game at any level of basketball.

He recorded 30 points on 23 shots while shooting 3-of-9 from 3-point range. He showed his skills as a shot creator that, frankly, no one knew he had.

Brian Kalbroski wrote more about Bronny’s performance here:

“Brony had 14 possessions for South Bay in that game off the pick and roll and 6 more one-on-ones against his defender in isolation, via Synergy. In comparison, he only had 19 possessions as a PnR ball handler and 9 in iso during his 25 games at USC.

South Bay put the ball in his hands and he made the most of the opportunity. Is this sustainable? It’s unclear, but any prediction between unlikely and cautiously optimistic is fair.

For his growth potential, however, those reps are invaluable and could go a long way toward increasing the likelihood of his NBA longevity.

We’ll see how this goes with himself. Personally, I’m not sure it’s more than a blip on the radar considering he’s never done anything like this before. But we’ll see!

Shooting

“It’s Jimmy Butler.” trolling us all with the Phoenix Suns color scheme. I am convinced. Mary Clark has more.

— Speaking of the NBA Cup, Brian there are tournament MVP candidates here.

— Trae Young rolling the dice on the Knicks logo is so perfect. Cory Woodroof has more here.

— Here Bryan on LeBron’s absence from the Lakers.

It’s the finale, folks. Thanks so much for reading. Peace

-Sykes ✌️