So as you know, the slam dunk contest field consists of these guys:
Zach LaVine (Wolves, defending champion)
Andre Drummond (Pistons)
Aaron Gordon (Magic)
Will Barton (Nuggets)
So do these guys have what it takes to dethrone Zach LaVine? Well, let’s take a quick look.
(VIDEO CREDIT: UConn.)
What you see in this video is the UConn Huskies Men’s College B-Ball team doing their little dunk contest (what’s up, Jeremy Lamb?). Drummond can do some things, including the difficult but very common between-the-legs dunk. So he’s got something but at 6’11”, it’s going to be tough because big guys don’t need as much of a vertical jump to do something good. I like Drummond but he’s going to really need to bring something good and creative.
(VIDEO CREDIT: Oregonian.)
Barton is 6’5″ and will be the shortest competitor but, really, this is a perfect dunker’s height. He can really get up there (here’s one more jam) but he’s the least known when it comes to dunking so he’s going to be the wild card.
(VIDEO CREDIT: GJ Fimbres.)
Gordon is 6’9″ so as a big guy, it’s easy to penalize him as well. But he can do twists and turns with those behind-the-back and between-the-legs dunks. If LaVine doesn’t win, I think Gordon can take it. That 360 between-the-legs dunk is something that is rarely seen (only Paul George has done it in the dunk contest and it wasn’t even super clean).
And, well, you know what LaVine can do.
(VIDEO CREDIT: NBA.)
But I do wanna see something new. He said that we didn’t even get to see all of the stuff that he did. I’ll admit that his second round dunks last year weren’t as great as his first. But they are so effortless for him. And he does seem to like dunk contests so I’m pretty sure he thought about what he’s going to do for this event.
Last season, LaVine brought a bit of the excitement back to the dunk contest. I hope he and the three other players make us want some more later on tonight.
PREDICTION: LaVine wins against Gordon in the Finals.
Follow Rey-Rey on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass for all tweets about the NBA and terrible pop music. Also, check out his podcast, Rey-Rey Is Fundamental.
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