It's an interesting question.
The problem in discussing this, is that so many Basketball fans have such an arrogant attitude towards the rest of Australian sport, when in fact it is precisely fans of those sports that we need to get. For most basketball "purists" mentioning those two dreaded letters, A & F, gets them foaming at the mouth. Yet the fact remains that the NBL was moved to Summer, precisely to target those fans and reduce competition.
How is this relevant?
Well, when speaking to many of those AFL (& NRL) fans, the biggest criticism I hear of the NBL (and basketball) is "Too American."
Again, I know the "purists" will say that there are basketball fans who subscribe to NBA, but don't watch NBL, because whah whah whah. So ok, they might appreciate more NBA coverage, but that's not going to encourage NBL viewing.
The big question is whether non basketball fans are going to be won over by watching the NBA? And I tend to think not.
BUT, I think what would help is FTA coverage, in a decent timeslot, of Boomers games. (Does that happen? I don't know?)
And what we really need is the Basketball equivalent of the Bledisloe. Aussie fans would follow Curling if it meant beating the Kiwis.