Agree with the above--it is a multi-pronged issue. For me, the overarching problem is a devaluation of the regular season. It seems that the NBA would concur given the floated schedule changes that we have heard over the last two days. However, I do not think they are addressing the proper causes.
1. There are no rivalries anymore--initially de-fanged by the post Malice-at-the-Palace rule changes, NBA rivalries were delivered the coup de grace by the player empowerment era. There are individual player beefs and stuff, but there is no national level regular season game I feel compelled to watch. There's nothing like Reggie Miller returning to the scene of the crime at the Garden, or a Heat/Knicks matchup, and certainly NOTHING on the level of early 2000s Kings/Lakers--conference matchups where the regular season games were further chapters in a long-running, and constantly simmering, feud. The national conversation now is about: will the two superstars from these two teams decide to play together next summer? That's literally the lead-in from the ESPN studio shows. Why should I care about the game about to played when the entire league seems to exist in a virtual reality of "Next Summer"?
2. It is a superstar league, and Lebron is the most ubiquitous, and yet easily the most boring, superstar in living memory. Now, I think he is as flawed as any other superstar we've had, but he's choked off any and all potential negative coverage and made the entire conversation unspeakably boring. How this guy vaulted 7-8 better players to automatically be anointed as #2 all-time behind MJ just floors me. And yet, all the national media stoically nod their heads and agree that yes, this man who waltzed to NBA Finals in the worst conference of my lifetime, and then lost a clear majority of those contests, is 100% better than the Dream, Magic, Bird, Kobe, Kareem, Timmy, etc. His HS freshman son's games are covered on the ESPN landing page--it's ridiculous. Him going to the Lakers magnified the league's and media's worst tendencies by an order of magnitude, and its off-putting for 29 other fanbases. What's the appeal in watching a national game that's simply a Lakers and Lebron infomercial? No, thank you.
2A. Harden--watching him is a beating.
3. For Slim and fellow travelers like me--legislating the big man out of the game has been a massive disappointment. It's probably, mostly, a result of #1 in that most of those feuds started as hard fought post battles. But, it feels like the game is simply trading 3-pt shooting hot streaks right now, and it's kind of boring for those that grew up on the more nuanced game of prior eras. I'll still watch the Kings, but I really don't care about whether or not the Jazz will get hot enough from beyond the arc to close out the Uber-boring Rockets on a Thursday night.