Why what happens on the court just doesn't matter.

The Benson Pels have about $30-$35 million more in revenue to work with than the Shinn Hornets did.

Each team is getting about $50 million more per year under the new TV deal. Half of that goes to the players, so "just" $25 million extra. The Fox Sports deal is $11-$12 IIRC vs. the old Cox deal being $8-$9 million, the league has increased revenue sharing, they sold naming rights to the arena, etc.

They are on pace to sell 640,000 tickets this season, but in the post CP3 years of 2012 and 2013 it was roughly 500,000 to 550,000. So 150,000 fewer tickets sold. With the average price being around $30 LINK / that's $4.5 million less in ticket sales than if it were a good year. For the Shinn Hornets that might have been the difference between profit or losing money. For the Benson Pelicans a down year in ticket sales is like a sold out year for the Shinn Hornets + $20-$25 million extra.

The TV deal was great for the league, but it diminished the importance of local ticket sales in NBA economics, and therefore reduced the accountability of teams to their local fans.