NBA 2015-2016 Season Thread

[thatshortguy]

I'm confused why they would want to get rid of Horford, aside from his contract.  Worse players have gotten max money (Joe Johnson), plus Splitter's had some issues with his hip and back and I don't know if he would be ready for a full workload.

[Benjamin]

It's been such a long time since a slam dunk contest made me jump out of my seat. Then Aaron Gordon and Zach LeVine started competing against each other. 

[Quom]

Just fucking insane

They should have let them tie, this is silly

Wait between the legs FT line dunk? Game over.

[The Buscher]

Nothing against LaVine but Gordon got really screwed in my opinion.



There is absolutely nothing LaVine could have done that would have warranted more than a 9 from me after that.

[Tyrone]

Aaron Gordon's a freak athlete, man. Amazing that he did so many of those dunks (in particular the one with the mascot spinning on the hoverboard) in one try. Would've went with Gordon over LaVine, but really it was super exciting to watch no matter who won.

Most fun I've had watching the All Star Saturday Night in a long while. Towns and Isiah Thomas in the Skills Challenge, Hart/Draymond, Klay vs. Steph. Real fun night.

[Quom]

I dunno, I'm obviously a total homer but I honestly think it's really hard to say who 'won' and I'd rather them have just said they were both winners.

Gordon had the more visually impressive dunks but at the same time he never took off from the FT line. LaVine showed not only can he get the distance but pulled off 3 never before seen dunks from that distance. People jizz their pants over Jordan and Dr. J doing a one hander from the FT line, LaVine did an oop, a windmill and a between the legs. That's just fucking insane and no other player has even considered attempting them despite them being fairly obvious. To me that shows that whilst not as flashy must be really, really hard to pull off. LaVine did the windmill and between the legs on the first attempt.  

After they were tied it would have worked better to make them match the other's best dunk to see if LaVine has those sorts of hops and to see if Gordon can jump that far.

Considering the way reddit and twitter are blowing up I kind of hope LaVine refuses to ever compete again.

[Benjamin]

Well, to be fair, he never really did it from the free throw line, his foot passed it by quite a distance on like 2 of those dunks 

They're different types of freak athletes, but were equally impressive nonetheless. I loved Gordon's last dunk, though, that's the sort of crazy "it looks simple but is actually fucking hard as fuck to do" kind of thing I love.

[Quom]

19 minutes ago, Benkid Nada said:

Well, to be fair, he never really did it from the free throw line, his foot passed it by quite a distance on like 2 of those dunks 

They're different types of freak athletes, but were equally impressive nonetheless. I loved Gordon's last dunk, though, that's the sort of crazy "it looks simple but is actually fucking hard as fuck to do" kind of thing I love.

I can't be arsed doing image dumps, but only half his foot was over the line on the first two, making them just as far as Jordan's. The only one his whole foot was over was the last one.

Do you know what looks really simple but is impossible to do? A FT line dunk. You fuckers be crazy, I'm wanting to hear from the pros. LaVine makes this shit look so easy people think it is.

[Benjamin]

I never said those were easy, but it looks fucking impressive. Whoever thinks leaping from 15 feet away and dunking is easy to do has never played basketball before. I can barely reach the rim if I leaped from after the FT line, and I'm 6'1. That doesn't mean Gordon's last doesn't look easy but is actually incredibly hard to pull off, though. It was just my favorite dunk of the night, it looked so pretty to me.

And I know he actually did the same last step that Jordan did, if you watched them back to back (which I did because I was blown away), you can see it has almost the same set up. I was just pulling your leg because I love how defensive you are of the small victories Minnesota gets  

[Quom]

Nah I'm defensive because people on Twitter and Reddit are acting like Zach is a cunt for accepting the award since he should have known he just got beat horribly.

Also:

 

[The Buscher]

I'd argue that it maybe never should have gone to a dunk off based on LaVine's dunk right after Gordon's spinning mascot hoverboard dunk being pretty much exactly the same, except without the spinning mascot on the hoverboard.  I guess you're technically supposed to judge each dunk totally on it's own but for me personally LaVine's dunk seemed less impressive not because he did anything wrong but only because of the one that immediately preceded it.

Oh well.  Phenomenal showing from both guys.  Doubtless they can already both be penciled in to next year's contest.

[Monkey D. Lars]

 

Let's show everyone who didn't watch! Epic stuff! That last dunk from Gordon was also easily a 50.

[Quom]

 

Looks so much better with the phantom cam. Westbrook knows he fucking killed it and Harden and Oladipo seem to be in a state of shock. I also love Wiggins holding KAT's arm like he's his son.

[Cymbols]

Air Gordon is a beast. Dead unlucky not to win.

[JasonM]

Watching the 3pt contest I had my mind blown by Klay hulking up and draining all the threes needed to beat Steph on the final rack.

Then the dunk contest happened, and that second round was just completely insane. If there ever was a moment to have a 'tie', this contest was it. The spinning mascot, and the seated one was just mental. Then LaVine one upped with that mental alley oop and between the leg... Like people have said, the fact he was half a foot over the line doesn't matter because that distance is insane in every way, and the fact he can do that distance and also move the ball between the legs, that's crazy.

LaVine revived the dunk contest last year with his crazy stuff, then Gordon and him proceed to create the best dunk contest ever. And we need a rematch next year for sure.
After the 'dark ages' where they were pulling out dumb props like double baskets, cupcakes, and convertibles, they've finally returned to a contest where there are either straight on dunks, or assisted (oops) dunks that actually take crazy skill to pull off.

The fact every dunk in the finals was done in one go made it even more impressive.
 

Edited February 14, 2016 by Jasonmufc

[DYSI]

 

 

 

And to think just 10 years ago we had this. >_> Thank god LaVine last year and Gordon this year brought credibility back to the contest, really great showcase on what the dunk contest should be.

Edited February 14, 2016 by Lenny DYSItra

[Chris2K]

Pretty fun night, bit disappointed in some of the attitudes of the big guys not even trying in the Skills Challenge when I'm sure there are plenty of guys who would have wanted their spot, and I was completely confused by the commentators burying people left, right and centre during dunk contest. Otherwise everything was excellent.

[Quom]

Who didn't try in the skills challenge? From everything I've read (and saw when watching it) the bigs were all desperate to win because everyone said they didn't stand a chance because they aren't quick and skilled enough. It's why they were all so excited for KAT winning.

[Meacon Keaton]

So Karl Anthony Towns won the skills challenge and Zach Lavine won the slam dunk contest? If the NBA was an And-1 tournament the Wolves would be the team to beat.

[JasonM]

5 hours ago, Chris2K said:

Pretty fun night, bit disappointed in some of the attitudes of the big guys not even trying in the Skills Challenge when I'm sure there are plenty of guys who would have wanted their spot, and I was completely confused by the commentators burying people left, right and centre during dunk contest. Otherwise everything was excellent.

The commentary during the Dunk Contest was just a #Bantz clusterfuck, which has become the norm for the contest. Kevin Hart was kinda heeling it up a bit, and Kenny was his usual "LETSGOHOME!LETSGOHOME!LETSGOHOME!LETSGOHOME!LETSGOHOME!LETSGOHOME!LETSGOHOME!LETSGOHOME!LETSGOHOME!LETSGOHOME!LETSGOHOME!LETSGOHOME!LETSGOHOME!LETSGOHOME!LETSGOHOME!", and it was pretty part for the course as far as dunk contests are concerned.

There isn't really much to talk about either, so they're pretty much forced to banter around.