Dunk Contest, 3-Point Contest Predictions/Talk

[cyanide]

The key thing is that Josh Smith made the dunk on his first try for every single dunk that's why he's so great.

Yeah, but all he has to do is jump and dunk with one hand. There's no behind the whatever tricks or lobs, which are harder to execute.

[Indy]

The key thing is that Josh Smith made the dunk on his first try for every single dunk that's why he's so great.

Yeah, but all he has to do is jump and dunk with one hand. There's no behind the whatever tricks or lobs, which are harder to execute.

are you kidding? that windmill was a really hard dunk to do, and the jump over k-mart was something that would take most people 2 trys so that they could get the feel of it. yes the freethrow line one wasnt that difficult but he had some high high difficulty dunks.

[-BHZMAFIA-]

that last windmill josh smith did was probably one of the toughest dunks you can do. sure its easy for you to say it wasnt nothing, but i bet you couldnt go out there and do a regular windmill it just wanst no regular 360 windmill, he twisted his body in a way where it looked like he was going to do a full 360, but he went back the other way to dunk it wiht the left hand. if you review the dunk, u will see how different the dunk was from regular windmills. i agree that jr smith first dunk was rigged because he shouldve got a 50. it doesnt matter though because chris anderosn shouldve never been in the contest. all because the all-star game was in denver, they had to have a denver player, former player or born from denver type player in every contest. i kno kenny, ernie and barkley had me crackin up though when chris anderson went and when they were talkin about how fat voshon lenard was.

[cyanide]

The dunks by Josh are really good, I agree, but a couple were questionable 50's. If I were to compare Amare's between the leg reverse two hander, that one is much harder to perform than Josh's flying dunks. He's lucky to have the hops, but I didn't see anything truly exceptional, imo.

[Andrew]

Just saw a couple of highlights over at ESPN.com. Amare's alley-oop with Steve Nash was one of the most innovative timing/lob dunks in the contest I've ever seen. Josh Smith's dunks were nice too, perhaps not the most original (though they're not usually finished left-handed) but hardly wishy-washy. I'm really looking forward to seeing the whole contest.

EDIT: Saw a few more highlights on SportsCenter. JR Smith's behind-the-back dunk was simply awesome - there's no way that something that creative and impressive that has never been done before in the dunk contest should get 45. That has to be a 50.

[Tuomas]

JR Smith got robbed

[J-Smoove]

jr smith was unfairly judged. omg that was an awesome dunk by him! the creativity there.. SHIT SON!! he brought it DOWN and then UP. crap, that was a 50, without a doubt.

no offense najira, your grading card shouldn't be regarded highly. no hard feelins bro . josh smith's creativity didn't deserve A+ (although i don think anyone woulda thought to choosing those crazy dunks, let alone finish them) but an A-. i don't like grades, so lets just leave it at that.

cyanide, i disagree bro. you're dissin' my boy j-smoove and that's not cool. sure it wasn't all his own stuff, but what indypacers67 said is right: those dunks were fucking hard to pull off!! that's pretty creative to me, that he thought of choosing those dunks (like i earlier stated). questionable 50s? which one?!

his windmill one was well deserved because there was power in it (i think the 'nique jersey factored only a point of 2 total- and yes, i know that 5 people are doing a grading system of 10, but i meant towards the final score if it were by one person).

his 'oop over kenyon was flippin' AWESOME. his leg action was what really got me "WHOA! FUCKIN BADASS!!"

don't tell me the 360 windmill was "egh" because that was just plain SICK. to use the words of the great TNT analyst "HE IS SICK! HE'S GOT THE FLU"

all (cept the 1st one) was deserving of a 50.. (remember, i think JR's deserved better than his score, but i can't change the past)

[8-Hype]

The Suns almost dominated the whole contest, winning three of four contests. I watched it live, so here is what I think:

Slam Dunk: That was a great contest. Before the dunk contest Dr. J said that "Amare talks a lot of trash..." - I had to laugh when I saw that. J.R. Smith started with a nice behind-the-back-dunk, he would have got a 50 if he had done it at the first try though - that's the first time somebody is trying this. Chris Andersen's dunk was nice, but actually crap, because Steve Francis did it the same in 2000, but he is much smaller than The Birdman, and has much smaller hands to catch it, and he caught it even with one hand. But Andersen even had 10 attempts at his first try... it would be a shame for me to try it even a fifth time.

Amare Stoudamire's first dunk was just crap and I don't know why he got a 45 for that. Josh Smith did a great first dunk (I don't exactly remember what), and his second was rim-wreckin', when he jumped over K-Mart almost from the free throw line and windmilled it through. But Amare's second dunk was the same as Ricky Davis' dunk in 2004. And the worst thing was that both J.R. Smith and Chris Andersen lost it because of theirselves. Andersen gave him two bad passes, and Smith was angry and did the same. Both just made fools of theirsleves yesterday.

But the greatest dunk was in the finals when Amare threw it off the backboard right at Nash's head and back. A lot of creativity! And also the second was very nice, both of them were connected to Nash's soccer skills (and when I saw a preview of NBA Live 2005 where somebody was doing that, I thought it would never happen). But J-Smoove just dominated the contest. It was really funny to see him wearing a Wilkins jersey for his thrid dunk. He took off from beyong the zone!! Sick dunk! And on his first he even 360 tomahawked it... crazy! Best dunks I've seen in a while.

He deserved to win it. Like they said, Amare just doesn't have hangtime. When J-Smoove jumped up it almost look like the air caught him and didn't want to let him go. He almost touched the rim with his head many times! Great dunk contest!

3 Point: Korver started with 14 and though he was already out, but the others did it even worse! Radmanovic didn't almost hit at all, and a pitty that Ray Allen lost in the first round.

Then Korver hit a 18, with which he had some good chances to win. Lenard failed to hit a lot in the second round and lost. Quentin Richardson had 13 before coming to the last rack, he would have shoot every shot to be first. He didn't start well on his second try, but at the fifth rack he hit every shot to overscore Korver with 19. And the crowd was really amazed seeing him hit all five at the last. I also liked this contest!

Shooting Stars: Well, Phoenix did it much faster than the others thanks to Majerle's last hit. They did it in 29 seconds, and the Lakers only in 1:18. LOL!

Skills: First it looked like Nash would loose, but then he showed off a very fast run in his second try. I wanted Boykins to win it, but Nash deserved it. Arenas had the worst time because of one station he did very bad, and just shot the ball at the last station, didn't hit, picked it up, and dunked it. LOL!

[Wormy10]

Yea J.R.'s behind the back dunk definently should have got a 50
I guess the judges didnt want to start the competition off with a perfect score
Even though he deserved it
Josh Smith's 1st dunk wasnt that great But I give him mad props for all the others

[The GOAT]

The only reason J.R.'s wasn't a 50 was because it was a third attempt. I still think it deserved a 47 or 48 though, 50 if it was on the first try. What was Josh Smith's first dunk?

[Kuttan]

the freethrow dunk...but he had a one step inside...so it wasnt actually a freethrow line dunk

[cyanide]

To clarify what I meant by questionable dunks, is that instead of a 50, a 48 or a 47 would be more reasonable.

[The GOAT]

Oh that was still a nice dunk, it was really powerful even though it wasn't from the line.

[-BHZMAFIA-]

this was the first dunk contest since 2000 when the crowd was ooo'ing and ahh'ing every dunk by one player. so obviously josh smith dunks were good enough to make everybody in the arena happy since vince carter got all the ooo's and ahh's in 2000 on each of his 4 dunks.

[j.23]

my thoughts:

- ray allen getting eliminated in the first round was disappointing
- the 3 pt contest was a let down i think, no one broke the 20 point mark
- gilbert arenas sucks at predicting the future. he said he would have no problem shooting the ball whatsoever and that the bounce pass was gonna be the problem.. judging by the outcome it was the other way around
- i love the broadcast crew.. charles was classic with the earl boykins/clubbing story
- jr smith deserved a 50 for the first dunk.. that was probably the hardest dunk all contest
- like mentioned before, amare's first dunk was overrated i've seen it done wayyyyyyy too many times
- josh smith is an absolute beast, his windmill and 360 windmill were
- chris andersen is pure comedy; he may be the very best point forward in the nba

[Andrew]

The only reason J.R.'s wasn't a 50 was because it was a third attempt. I still think it deserved a 47 or 48 though, 50 if it was on the first try. What was Josh Smith's first dunk?

Historically, that hasn't been a factor in the judging though, even on replacements.

[Guest]

Chris Andersen's dunk was nice, but actually crap, because Steve Francis did it the same in 2000, but he is much smaller than The Birdman, and has much smaller hands to catch it, and he caught it even with one hand.

Francis threw it from the 3 point line, Birdman did it from behind the half-court line, theirs quite a big difference.

[8-Hype]

jr smith deserved a 50 for the first dunk.. that was probably the hardest dunk all contest

That's the hardest dunk I've ever seen by someone. When he attempted it at his first, I thought it's never going to get inside... because it's way too difficult.

like mentioned before, amare's first dunk was overrated i've seen it done wayyyyyyy too many times

That dunk was crap. No creativity, no effect - score should be lower than 40. Richard Jefferson got a 37 for his off the backboard windmill in 2003. The judges were some real twits in 2003-2005, really.

chris andersen is pure comedy

Why did he even participate? His ten attempts were just a joke... and he even stole J.R. Smith's show with those two intentional bad passes.

[dsigns]

JR Smith got robbed. Not saying he woulda won the contest, but JR Smiths first dunk deserved a 50. If Josh Smiths windmill got a 50 then JR Smith definately deserved a 50.

The new rule that you can keep trying til you get the dunk is a disgrace. Anyone can be in the contest with that rule.

[Ataraxia]

JR Smith got robbed. Not saying he woulda won the contest, but JR Smiths first dunk deserved a 50. If Josh Smiths windmill got a 50 then JR Smith definately deserved a 50.

The new rule that you can keep trying til you get the dunk is a disgrace. Anyone can be in the contest with that rule.

Josh Smith's free throw line was similar to Gerald Wallace's.....about a foot inside......

I think they should also remove the power dunkers......I mean Amare n Birdman arent very flashy....ok maybe creative but still Amare didnt do alot really....hes dunk in the all-star game was prolly the best dunk he did in the all-star weekend period.

[8-Hype]

hes dunk in the all-star game was prolly the best dunk he did in the all-star weekend period.

It was!