The NBA's TV ratings have plummeted this season.

TNT's numbers are down 23%, Sports Business Journal reporter John Ourand recently wrote. ESPN's ratings are down 19%, and the average audience for the regional sports networks has dipped 7%.

The Cavs' ratings on Fox Sports Ohio — as you might expect, considering the oncourt results — have also dropped significantly.

Through 20 games, the quarter point of the season, the average rating for Cavs broadcasts on FSO is 2.78. That figure is 16.3% lower than last season's 3.32 norm, a number that was down 58% from a 7.98 average in 2017-18.

The Zydrunas Ilgauskas-sized caveat in those figures is the declines follow LeBron James exiting for the L.A. Lakers after leading the Cavs to four consecutive NBA Finals appearances. The numbers are also similar to the FSO ratings for the Cavs prior to James' return.

In 2013-14, when the Kyrie Irving-led Cavs won 33 games, the average rating on FSO was 2.79. That norm is almost identical to this season's average, and it ranked seventh in the NBA.

We weren't able to track down exact NBA ratings rankings for this season, but we were told the Cavs' early average remains in the top 10. The team's 3.32 norm in '18-19, even for a 19-win club, was good for sixth in the league.

The Cavs being in the top 10 is a testament to Cleveland's rabid sports fans, and is another sign of how the NBA has struggled to maintain its TV audience this season.

Commissioner Adam Silver recently said the pay-TV system was "broken to a certain extent," citing a 20% decline in cable and satellite viewership in the last four years.

That comment, while blunt, seems odd coming from the leader of a league that rakes in billions from its rights deals.

In the case of the Cavs, the decline might be as simple as the product has been mostly terrible. It also hasn't helped that a carriage dispute between Fox Sports and Dish/Sling has carried over to Sinclair's ownership of a group of regional sports networks that includes Fox Sports Ohio and SportsTime Ohio.

The rebuilding Cavs are 5-15 and have lost nine of their last 10 games.

They are 28th in the league in points per game (104.2) and are getting outscored by 8.7 points per contest. Cleveland is also near the bottom of the league in offensive rating (tied for 25th at 104.6 points per 100 possessions), defensive rating (25th at 113.4) and net rating (27th at -8.8).

The prized draft picks from the last two years — Collin Sexton and Darius Garland — have been inconsistent and/or bad.

Sexton, the eighth overall pick in 2018, is averaging 18.1 points per game, but his advanced numbers aren't good — and neither are common stats such as his 3-point percentage (32.6) and assists per game (2.5).

Garland, who was selected fifth in the 2019 draft, is averaging 10.8 points and shooting 37.9% as a rookie. He "stinks right now," The Athletic's John Hollinger, a former Memphis Grizzlies executive and the creator of the player efficiency rating (PER), wrote Thursday.

Still, the Cavs will be patient with guards who will turn 21 (Sexton) and 20 (Garland) in January. The same goes for rookies Kevin Porter Jr. (a 19-year-old who is playing 20.5 minutes per game) and Dylan Windler (a first-round pick who has yet to make his NBA debut because of a stress reaction in his leg).

On Nov. 10, the Cavs were 4-5 and were a pleasant early-season surprise.

Fox Sports Ohio's next broadcast — an entertaining 98-97 loss at Philadelphia on Nov. 12 — drew the highest rating of the season, at 4.43.

The Cavs' second- and third-best ratings of the year also occurred within the first 10 contests. A 119-113 loss to the Boston Celtics at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Nov. 5 generated a 3.76 rating on FSO, and the Cavs' 110-99 win over the visiting Indiana Pacers on Oct. 26 produced a 3.66 rating.

Also of note, the FSO rating for the Cavs' 113-100 win at Washington on Nov. 8 was 3.21, which topped the ESPN rating for the same game by 63%.

Fox Sports Ohio, to its credit, has tried different things this season, such as using microphones on coaches and players during games, and John Michael has filled in admirably for Fred McLeod, the revered play-by-play announcer who passed away suddenly on Sept. 9.

But if the product is bad, the numbers usually are, too.

The FSO stats, however, do provide a rare top-10 ranking for the 2019-20 Cavs.

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