Around the League: Week 16 The 2015 All-Star Game

[Mori Chu]

Did any of yall watch the all star festivities tonight? I caught a bit of the rising stars but could not bring myself to watch the celebrity game. Didn't get much out of it. Was just a bunch of guys going 1 on 1 and dunking a lot.

[SDC]

The fact that Cousins is maybe the top C in the league and Bledsoe is an overpaid above-average PG has always meant there's no chance of that happening.

but the suns got barkley for suns pieces, right?

Hornacek was well-regarded, Andrew Lange was a league leader in blocks-per-minute, and Tim Perry was a top draft choice and a college hero at nearby Temple (in Philly). So "Suns pieces" is a bit misleading.

a lot of people today would put bledsoe > horny and who would you rather have--Len or (Andrew Lang + Tim Perry)?

[Cap]

It should be noted, that trade didn't work out especially well for Philly.

[Mori Chu]

Steph Curry tonight:

[Mori Chu]

Kevin Hart needs to crawl into a hole and die. He's all over All-Star weekend and annoying as hell.

[Mori Chu]

Anybody watching the dunk contest? DAMN Oladipo's first dunk was nasty.

[Cap]

Reggie can't count. That wasn't a 540, it was a 360 reverse, which is still plenty impressive.

[SDC]

i'm embarassed for zach lavine (altho that was a great dunk)

space jam... space jam..

[Mori Chu]

That first Lavine dunk was really good. I'm always impressed when they get a tough dunk to go in on the first try.

[Sunsfan4life]

Lavines should be a 10.

I have trouble giving Oladepio a 10 cause he missed twice. Actually I would of given it an 8.

[Sunsfan4life]

Do nets fans even know who Mason Plumlee is? lol he gets like no reaction

[Cap]

Miles is in All-Star weekend!

[SDC]

i wish i saw that second lavine dunk live.

[Sunsfan4life]

Lavine just has a unreal vertical leap. He was still going up on that last one

[Mori Chu]

I feel bad for the state of the dunk contest. The fans and judges have seen everything so they are super chinsy with their scores. I mean, that Plumlee over Plumlee dunk got a horrible score, but it's no easy feat to JUMP OVER A 7-FOOTER. They just found it boring. Just because it's been done before doesn't make it easy to do in front of a crowd and national audience.

[Mori Chu]

Lavine takes the dunk contest. He deserved it, but his dunks all kind of looked the same to me. A lot of between-the-legs, behind-the-back stuff. Still his hops are amazing.

[Sunsfan4life]

Lavines 2nd dunk was his best. Overall him and dipo did a nice job.

[carey]

Lavine takes the dunk contest. He deserved it, but his dunks all kind of looked the same to me. A lot of between-the-legs, behind-the-back stuff. Still his hops are amazing.

All his dunks had high levels of difficulty, but he didn't reinvent the wheel. My opinion is that the dunk contest has been so lackluster that Lavine sort of stands out in comparison. People are going nuts but I don't think we just saw Vince Carter in his prime or anything. Hell Gerald Green could do those exact dunks right now, I have no doubt.

[Flagrant Fowl]

The thing that impressed me most about LaVine's dunks was that he nailed the first two on his first attempts. I think the difficulty of that alone is highly underrated, and it would have been nearly criminal if he somehow didn't win the contest after that.

My favorite part of the whole contest was when the camera caught Oladipo after LaVine's second dunk. He just had a deflated WTF?! look on his face. I felt sorry for him, but it was hilarious.

[ShelC]

Lavine is the type of guy they need in the dunk contest from an athleticism standpoint. He's long, bouncy, graceful and hyper athletic. Lacks a little bit of the showmanship and polish but hey, he's 19. Like others have said tho, Lavine didn't reinvent the wheel and his dunks were pretty similar. Nailing them as soon as he tried them might have impressed me most. As soon as a guy misses his first attempt, cat's out of the bag and the surprise is gone. So props to that. The other problem i see is that by the end of the contest, you've most likely seen better dunks and it's anti-climactic. I wish there were a way to truly save the best dunks for last. The rest of the field...

Plumlee was an embarrassment. No one wanted him there and he looked like he didn't even want to be there. And he caught some shit for saying he was "the kid from Brooklyn". Giannis kind of disappointed but I always think it's much harder on bigs.

Oladipo tried for sure, and I think he's one of the most explosive dunkers in the league right now. I've seen him live in warmups and he's got crazy bounce, really effortless. Might be a better in-game dunker but he's also a power dunker and I thought he tried to get too fancy. Every dunk attempt, he should've tried to rip the rim down. That would've been a better contrast to Lavine's finesse.

In general tho, there's still not much left to do with the dunks so it's got to be about showmanship. I actually thought it would've been cool to see a guy bring out a rack of suits and accessories, get all done up like a fashion show and pull off a dunk in a three piece, sunglasses, etc. I'm surprised no one thought of that, especially in the NBA. Seemed like a natural progression.

At one point, after the Oladipo/mom story, I thought he was going to bring his mom out and dunk on her. THAT would've been something.

The other production stuff kind of sucked tho. Giannis brought out the girls and the Greek flag...and then didn't do anything with them. He should've dunked in a toga or something. Eat a gyro, some Chobani...gimme something.