I think the NBA is fine financially. I've always said that the TV viewership doesn't matter as much as people make it out to be when it comes to the league's overall health. The NBA will learn how to better monetize the internet traffic that they dominate, and entering the streaming wars will be a win for them no matter what. But what the TV viewership does tell you is how much people enjoy the games, and I to me the day to day product of the NBA has really fallen off a cliff. The problem with championship or bust is exactly what it says. If it's not the championship, it doesn't matter. The 82 game regular season hardly matters at all when it comes to the championship conversation, and it's an open thing now. Franchises don't seem to care, the players don't care, and I don't think hardcore fans care much either. It's all about the end goal, the championship. The regular season games don't have much consequence to the championship conversation. In fact, it's become the accepted opinion that emphasizing the regular season comes at a detriment to title hopes. Regular season play has continued to diverge from playoff basketball and it won't stop.
It's all relative of course. People do care about a random regular season game and everyone wants to win, but compared to other sports, the importance of each game is so diminished and it doesn't necessarily make the actual championship more exciting. The large discrepancy between the RS and Playoffs makes for a more boring conclusion IMO.