2014 NBA All Star Weekend

[Majingir]

Tonight they're announcing the starters for the all star team, meaning it'll only be a matter of time before the reserves are named and the players for other events(dunk contest,3pt shootout ect.) are named.

All Star Weekend begins in just about 3 weeks!

Who do people think will be on all star team? And who will be in the All Star Saturday Night competitions?

[VDusen04]

I'm just hoping the dunk contest maintains last year's format (six competitors, two rounds, two dunks per round). It'd be nice to see proper voting return for the finals though (i.e. not fan vote).

I'm not super excited about the All-Star Game itself yet. As a fan of the highlight, I like ASG's when they contain players going above and beyond the plays they normally try to make during regular games. I'm not sure who in this group will end up being that guy. Hopefully Griffin attempts a crazy dunk and hopefully Kyrie bring an adequate bit of flair.

[Majingir]

I said it in another thread and I'm saying it here too...

For the dunk contest...I hope they announce participants much earlier. So guys can at least have time to think of stuff. Many times you'll hear interviews with guys who are just like "Me and ____ just came up with some stuff a few days ago".

People say that the contest has seen it all ,but that's obviously not the case,it's just players not really doing alot.

Someone should try for a 720 dunk or a 360 between the legs and stuff. I know players(including one who was in contest last year) has done that before, but nobody does stuff like that in dunk contest...And what about someone actually hitting a dunk from the free throw line(not a foot after the line,or throwing in the ball after jumping from the line) or dunking over someone huge(since he'll obviously be there,someone should dunk over Shaq!)

[turty11]

i want to see the kind of stuff blake was doing aside from the car jump...the props kill it for me...i just want to see hard, or stylish dunks, no 2-3 ball shenanigan crap. gimme a 540 off the backboard and ill be a happy man

[VDusen04]

Quote: Originally Posted by Majingir

I said it in another thread and I'm saying it here too... For the dunk contest...I hope they announce participants much earlier. So guys can at least have time to think of stuff. Many times you'll hear interviews with guys who are just like "Me and ____ just came up with some stuff a few days ago". People say that the contest has seen it all ,but that's obviously not the case,it's just players not really doing alot. Someone should try for a 720 dunk or a 360 between the legs and stuff. I know players(including one who was in contest last year) has done that before, but nobody does stuff like that in dunk contest...And what about someone actually hitting a dunk from the free throw line(not a foot after the line,or throwing in the ball after jumping from the line) or dunking over someone huge(since he'll obviously be there,someone should dunk over Shaq!)

Yep, there's still a lot of room for innovation. It'd be nice to hear of the contestants earlier, but I also think there's some players out there who just never bother to plan, regardless of when they find out they'll be competing.

In addition to there being a lot of dunks not yet completed in NBA slam dunk contests, I think there's still a lot of room for improvement on jams that have technically been finished. For instance, as most know, the first between-the-legs dunk in contest history was actually completed in 1984 by Orlando Woolridge:



However, even having completed his dunk, there was still a big technical opening for others to come in and do it better, and with more style, almost as if it was a new dunk altogether:



Jason Richardson's 2003 winner always comes to mind for me. I love the dunk, but it was a little awkward and didn't go down cleanly. I think it can be done better than this:

[Majingir]

Format should change too. Instead of fans deciding the winner,fans should just count as 1 judge. Then we have:

1st round is 6 guys who each get 2 dunks and they're scored by the judges(4 real judges and 1 judge who is the fans scoring each persons dunk online)

2nd round is the 3 highest from 1st round where each guy does 2 more dunks and are scored by the judges again(with the fans scoring each persons dunk online).

So fans can still have a say, but they don't have too much say.

And MAYBE they take the overall score of the first 2 rounds to determine the winner(so that guys won't hold back for the final round and possibly won't even make it there and get to show off their "A material dunk")

That could be done to prevent something from happening like a guy getting 2 50s in first round,and then getting like 45 and 45 in 2nd round and losing to someone who got 46 in every single round including the finals.

[VDusen04]

Quote: Originally Posted by Majingir

Format should change too. Instead of fans deciding the winner,fans should just count as 1 judge. Then we have: 1st round is 6 guys who each get 2 dunks and they're scored by the judges(4 real judges and 1 judge who is the fans scoring each persons dunk online) 2nd round is the 3 highest from 1st round where each guy does 2 more dunks and are scored by the judges again(with the fans scoring each persons dunk online). So fans can still have a say, but they don't have too much say. And MAYBE they take the overall score of the first 2 rounds to determine the winner(so that guys won't hold back for the final round and possibly won't even make it there and get to show off their "A material dunk") That could be done to prevent something from happening like a guy getting 2 50s in first round,and then getting like 45 and 45 in 2nd round and losing to someone who got 46 in every single round including the finals.

I'd actually like fan voting to be removed altogether.

And I think I'd like to keep the idea of separating the scoring for the two different rounds. If all the scores were tallied as one, it'd almost defeat the purpose of rounds (except to eliminate a guy or two). Also, I think a cumulative total of four dunks may open up the door to dunkers clinching the contest earlier than may be prudent, leading to an anti-climatic final round if the second place dunker fell behind significantly early on.

[Rockie_Fresh88]

Some guys I think are deserving

West

Parker (Curry) (Lillard)
Harden
Durant
Aldrige (Blake) (Love) (A.Davis)
Dwight (Duncan)

East

Kyrie (Wall)
Paul George (Wade)( L. Stephenson? )
Lebron (Melo)
Bosh ? (Milisap) (Al Jefferson)
Hibbert (Noah?)