State of the A is the culmination of ruminations about observations made while calculating the palpitations of the Association.

My NBA mindset is suffering mood swings lately.  On the one hand, an overwhelming depression has set in as the season, in terms of championships and relevance and such things is over. On the other, there is brilliance in the heart of the league, the parts I love most, the parts almost never on national television, the part over long before June. Let’s compare.

The World Is A Vampire Sent To Drain

The Lakers are king. The Celtics will try and claim that they are only playing for spring, but the combination of injuries, a lack of depth, and an overwhelming vulnerability to athleticism have made them fatally mortal. I cling to the effect of Delonte West’s return, but the Lakers dominance over great teams has been so definitive, I can’t really see him being the difference, psychic connection with LeBron or not.The season is, even at this early point, over. It’s celebration time for the Staples faithful, and they will relish it from the time they arrive in the second quarter through when they leave to get out before traffic in the early fourth.

Additionally on the doom and gloom is the bottom of the West’s playoff ladder. While the top is made of the Lakers and four teams that are very solid but nothing close to great (ask Pop about his team’s defense if you don’t believe me), the bottom is just tragic.  The Mavericks, Jazz, Rockets, and Suns are some bizarre translation of mid-90s rock bands, far past their prime, the window closed, yet still trying to suck some level of success out of the same formula they used in their prime. Everclear, Stone Temple Pilots, Collective Soul. I won’t even approach how this makes the Spurs Pearl Jam, able to maintain relevance and a certain humor about themselves that is irritatingly likeable. Dirk Nowitzki is still a terrific player, but there’s something missing from this Mavs team that makes you doubt their ability to put anything significant together (that something might be Devin Harris, but we won’t go there). Steve Nash is still capable of amazing play and still has the kind of  fun that you dream of, but his defense is no longer a weakspot you can gloss over, it’s a gaping wound in the side of his team that bleeds from the start to the finish. The Jazz are actually the team I think has the best ability of that crew to put together a run, but they will not be able to make an impact in the semifinals. They’ll be overwhelmed by sheer firepower, though I think Millsap, AK, Williams, and Brewer could push the Spurs. Unfortunately, Boozer will get too many minutes for that possibility to take flight, and if they end up in LA’s bracket, fuhgeddaboutit.

And in the most depressing state of all, we’re going to have a repeat (ugh) MVP. LeBron’s the best player in the league. Everyone outside of LA and a brief timeout website would concur with this. But he hasn’t played like it. Whereas Bryant has integrated all parts of his game, passing, playmaking, defense, and surged forward with key shot after key shot (see: games against Boston, New Orleans) that simply defy the imagination, LeBron has somehow become a much bigger version of the Bryant no one likes to see. He’s focusing on scoring, and trying to prove that he can shoot the perimeter shots and make pull-up jumpers. Watching him force it is maddening, particularly when he’s not forcing it in the lane. For reasons I have yet to comprehend, the Cavs have abandoned the tactic of putting him in the block and letting him, you know, BE ATHLETICALLY BETTER THAN ANYONE, EVER. Instead we’re back to him trying to manage the offense from the perimeter, find holes where there are none, and instead of Mo Williams filling in the negative zones and turning them into positives, it feels like Williams is jealous and trying to prove to LeBron he can hit shots too,as if to steal some light from the King. This is why West is so important, he understands the importance of LeBron in a way no one on that team really gets. They know it in their head, but they don’t understand it. But even as LeBron is racking up assists and rebounds, his focus has changed. He’s no longer in complete sync with the game. He’s back to forcing it. And the Cavs are vulnerable because of it. If they bring this version to the playoffs, Boston can and WILL beat them.

Bryant’s earned it, and as much as I hate dynasties and repeat MVPs, there’s just no question at this point. It will take a massive turnaround once West comes back to the way they played earlier in the season to convince me otherwise.

Today Is The Greatest Day I’ve Ever Known

And on the other hand, there’s the East from seed 3 on down to the very bottom. The East is the new frontier. The Magic all of a sudden have a wild card. Rafer can be brilliant, or terrible. He can be clutch, or a disaster. He’s neither as good as his biggest fans believe  nor as terrible as his harshest critics think. He doesn’t have to replace Nelson, he just has to augment their attack. The plan for Orlando going into this season was to repeat last season’s success, build a bit more, and try and make it to a game seven in the 2nd round. But what if, by the force of Howard and the streak of their arrows, they can actually get the 1 seed? They’re only 2.5 out. If they can sneak into that top spot, theyget the Hawks/Pistons/Heat in the 2nd round while Cleveland and Boston can beat the crap out of one another. Then the objective becomes forcing a game seven in the ECF and leaving it up to God,or precisely, their shooting.

But that’s way out there and contingent on things. What is more fascinating is the rest of the East. The Heat seem to waver between deadly and wimpish, the Hawks are a paranoid schezophrenic’s delusion of grandeur, crazy enough to believe in themselves all the way to victory or go flying off of a cliff because they think they can fly. The Pistons are in with the bottom of the West, but the Sixers have some sort of strange incomplete flurry going on. Much like last season, they’re capable of firing on all cylinders and burying you unexpectedly, or fading into the fog like they didn’t exist.

But Lord, the eight spot.

Milwaukee, Chicago, New Jersey, New York, Indiana, Charlotte, Toronto. Such flawed teams capable of such brilliance.

Let’s be very clear, none of these teams are advancing past the first round. Playoff-basketball, superstars, blah blah bah. This isn’t about that. This is about the brilliance of pointless success. And that’s very much what these teams are about.

Toronto showed flashes on Sunday of the capability this lineup has. Calderon, Parker, Marion, Bosh, Bargnani. Marion’s filling the gaps like he’s meant to, not asserting the word like he needed to in Miami. And with Bosh and Bargnani both capable of big nights, this team has potential to put together a streak.

Charlotte keeps missing its afterburners, but you notice more and more teams having problems putting them away. The interior passing Diaw provides and the boost of Wallace’s return has created an uneven but weighted team. With Augustin back they have a good enough bench set to at least survive the tsunami. I always get the feeling like this team is on the brink of something interesting, if not significant.

Indiana has Danny Granger sometimes. Marquis Daniels is scrappy. Jarrett Jack is…something. Really, this is the team I have the least investment in, but that’s mostly because Troy Murphy and Jeff Foster make me cry for the money spent on them (27 points or not). They’re the workman’s team. If you’re a hustle junkie you love this squad. Doing more with less.

New York is running 7SOL with Al Harrington and Nate Robinson. It’s like watching a car drive on two wheels, going 70 miles an hour, for 30 miles.

I’ll forgive New Jersey Vince Carter since he’s playing like cares, and Devin Harris makes the world go round. Brook Lopez has a workman’s attitude that makes me think in another life he was a Union man. Or a stormtrooper. I will wait for CDR as long as I have to.

Chicago is brilliantly temperamental. Kirk Hinrich is now, with Nocioni in Sactown, the most hated Bull by Bullsfans, and he’s been the biggest reason for their above .500 play, including a brilliant game versus Denver. He’s playing the tremendous defense and shooting the ball like the 2006 version. And he seems to feed off the disdain for him. Yes, Rose should be playing in the fourth, but so should Hinrich. But oh, what would the Bulls do without Ben Gordon to pointlessly jack up shot after shot with no regard for the offense? It’s no surprise that Tyrus Thomas’ evolution is lifting to my soul as if anything is possible, and Brad Miller is just icing on the cake.

But Milwaukee? Milwaukee is glorious. The Thunder has more, but its not cohesive. The Lakers are magnificent, but like anything good that’s popular, it’s crammed down your throat. And the Bucks should be horrible. They lost their two biggest stars for God’s sake! As soon as the Redd injury happened, everyone penciled them out. And yet, here they are, a game and a half above the Bulls, only three games back of .500. And the way they’re doing it!

It’s all effort and length and speed. They can’t defend, so they have to dive after loose balls, swat away hook shots, attacking the rim, and playing together. V-Nuv is some sort of weird combination of a rhino and an energy circuit, managing to try on every possession to either kill the rim or hit the most obscene shot he can. Sessions has so much blackout speed I have to remind myself to watch him when he has the ball because half the time he scores when I’m not looking. Mbah A Moute is the real surprise. I built up a long list of reasons why he would never succeed in the NBA when I watched him in the tournament last year, and have now become enamored with the outrageous way he’s translated his game. It’s like taking ancient Greek and translating it into binary. Ridnour is professional, Jefferson alternates between brilliance and maddening black hole behavior, and Dan Gadzuric is absolutely absurd. In every way.  I’m almost happy that ESPN decided not to share the brilliance of Hornets-Bucks with the world. It’s one area where I get to be selfish, relishing in this secret while everyone else is concerned with teams that actually, you know, matter.

None of these teams are what you would call “good.” They’re flawed, and because of their flaws, they are incredibly fun to watch. You pull for them to overcome them, and there’s a baseball-like joy in watching them develop, find themselves, discover that “Hey, we can beat these guys.”

The eighth spot in the East should be a tournament. It would be a three day tournament held in the interim week before the playoffs. The runner-up gets an extra 4% in the lottery. And it would be some of the absolute best basketball you’re going to see this season. I don’t envy the college game for the randomness of March Madness, I love the assuredness of the Association’s championship system. There’s no doubt at the the end of the season that the champion has earned it and deserved it. You can debate a team was better but the sample size is sufficient to provide legitimacy. But for the East’s eight spot? Who cares about legitimacy? We’re all aware that no team is surviving playing three days in a row, then having to turn around and travel for a seven game series against the best team in the East. But it would be terrific ball. Derrick Rose versus Deven Harris. Villanueva versus Harrington. The Raptors bizarre mutation versus the composite Bobcats.

This is logistically impossible, and impractical to the nth degree. But I say it because you should know that under your nose, as the rest of the League rots in the downturn, carrying out the same pattern that’s been set, there is a shimmering pool of imperfect, incredible basketball happening underneath your local stations.