And-Ones: Media Rights, G League, Bledsoe, Beasley, Franklin

When the NBA negotiates its next television deal, expect the league to sell a separate package of streaming-only games, writes Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports. As McCarthy outlines, the NFL and MLB have sold packages of games to Amazon and Apple in recent years, and the NBA is expected to follow suit, with Amazon in particular having made it clear it wants to get into business with the league.

“Amazon is locked and loaded for a shot at the NBA,” a source told Front Office Sports.

According to McCarthy, sports media consultant Patrick Crakes estimated that the bidding for a streaming-only NBA package could start in the neighborhood of $1 billion per year. The league’s current TV deal with ESPN/ABC and Turner Sports pays the league about $2.6 billion annually — the next rights deal is expected to double or triple that figure, McCarthy writes.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

• While a deal with the NBA could be coming down the line, Amazon officially announced today that it has entered a partnership with Overtime Elite and will stream 20 OTE games in each of the next three seasons, as Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic details.
• With the NBA G League’s season set to tip off on Friday, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, Bobby Marks, and Kevin Pelton (Insider link) break down what to watch for in 2022/23. Pelton identifies Joe Wieskamp, Saben Lee, Willie Cauley-Stein, Jamaree Bouyea, and Shabazz Napier as some top candidates for call-ups, while Givony notes that the G League Ignite’s roster will feature Scoot Henderson and a handful of other intriguing prospects.
• After reportedly reaching a deal to sign free agent guard Eric Bledsoe, the Shanghai Sharks have parted ways with forward Michael Beasley and guard Jamaal Franklin, two former NBA players, tweets Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. There was some uncertainty about whether the Sharks would move forward with their signing of Bledsoe following his arrest for misdemeanor domestic violence last month, but he won’t face any criminal charges in that case, according to a TMZ report.
• Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype takes a closer look at the NBA’s rumored proposal of a league-wide hard cap, considering whether the idea could work and what the pros and cons would be.