All Star Weekend 2019 Discussion

[Hoop Head]

I think the only Suns participating this weekend in the festivities are Ayton in the Rising Stars game and Booker defending his 3pt contest title on Saturday night. The Rising Star game is on Friday night.

Here's info on the Rising Star game.

https://www.nba.com/games/20190215/WLDUSA



Team U.S.

Jarrett Allen, Marvin Bagley III, Lonzo Ball (injured), John Collins, De'Aaron Fox, Jaren Jackson Jr., Kevin Knox, Kyle Kuzma, Donovan Mitchell, Jayson Tatum

Team World

OG Anunoby, Deandre Ayton, Bogdan Bogdanović, Luka Dončić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Rodions Kurucs, Lauri Markkanen, Josh Okogie, Cedi Osman, Ben Simmons

 

[Hoop Head]

In the Skills Challenge tomorrow night....



Participants:


• Mike Conley, Grizzlies

• Luka Doncic, Mavericks

• De'Aaron Fox, Kings

• Nikola Jokic, Nuggets

• Kyle Kuzma, Lakers

• Jayson Tatum, Celtics

• Nikola Vucevic, Magic

• Trae Young, Hawks

 

[Hoop Head]

In the Skills Challenge tomorrow night....
http://www.nba.com/allstar/2019/events/three-point-contest

Participants:


• Devin Booker, Suns

• Seth Curry, Trail Blazers

• Stephen Curry, Warriors

• Danny Green, Raptors

• Joe Harris, Nets

• Buddy Hield, King

• Damian Lillard, Trail Blazers

• Khris Middleton, Bucks

• Dirk Nowitzki, Mavericks

• Kemba Walker, Hornets

 

[Hoop Head]

And the Dunk Contest...

http://www.nba.com/allstar/2019/events/dunk-contest

Participants:


• Miles Bridges, Hornets

• John Collins, Hawks

• Hamidou Diallo, Thunder

• Dennis Smith Jr., Knicks

 

[Hoop Head]

Here's info on the game on Sunday with Team Lebron vs Team Giannis

I like the "special additions" with Dirk and Wade. Both are retiring at years end and they were added to the All-Star game by the commissioner. Neither is taking a spot from a younger, more deserving player.

https://www.nba.com/games/20190217/LBNGNS#/asw-as-game



Team LeBron:
Starters:

LeBron James
Kevin Durant (first Team LeBron pick)
Kyrie Irving
Kawhi Leonard
James Harden
Reserves:

Anthony Davis
Klay Thompson
Damian Lillard
Ben Simmons
LaMarcus Aldridge
Karl-Anthony Towns
Bradley Beal


Special addition:
Dwyane Wade



Team Giannis:
Starters:

Giannis Antetokounmpo
Steph Curry (first Team Giannis pick)
Joel Embiid
Paul George
Kemba Walker
Reserves:

Khris Middleton
Nikola Jokic
Russell Westbrook
Blake Griffin
D'Angelo Russell
Nikola Vucevic
Kyle Lowry

Special addition:
Dirk Nowitzki

 

[devilalum]

And the Dunk Contest...

http://www.nba.com/allstar/2019/events/dunk-contest

Participants:


• Miles Bridges, Hornets

• John Collins, Hawks

• Hamidou Diallo, Thunder

• Dennis Smith Jr., Knicks

They should change it to a Drunk Dunk contest. They could let Jim Beam sponsor the thing. Players have to do a shot before each dunk.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Hoop Head]

They should change it to a Drunk Dunk contest. They could let Jim Beam sponsor the thing. Players have to do a shot before each dunk.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That would be good. I'd like to see them adopt a HORSE game like that, at the least. Instead of letters you need to slam a shot. First to puke loses.

 

[Ronin]

Sign me up to watch the three point contest, over watching the dunk contest.

 

[Carolinacacti]

friend went to the celebrity game tonight. I should go uptown and look around but I'm not.

 

[HeHasRosen]

Rising star game was ok. More enjoyable than the suns games. Trey Young is sick. Dribbled through 2 guys legs. Once was on Ayton. Ayton had a couple big dunks all with emphasis unlike in actual games. Doncic was quiet i expected more from him

 

[Hoop Head]

I know defense isn't really played during All-Star games but Ayton had the worst plus/minus of anyone involved in the Rising Stars game tonight with a -22. He played in 22 minutes after starting at Center for the World team. He shot 7 of 12 from the field, 0 for 4 from 3pt range, and 1 for 1 on FT's to go with 8 boards, 5 assists, and 0 turnovers.

Link to boxscore for those interested.
https://www.nba.com/games/20190215/WLDUSA#/boxscore


I'm not trying to pick on Ayton, I just find it kind of funny he ended up with the worst +/- of anyone involved in this game after he went on record saying he plays good defense. He has the potential, for sure, but he needs to apply himself a bit more on the defensive end and take it personally when opponents score in the paint against him. He has all of the tools to be a beast down low and make opponents fear driving while he's on the court but he's not there now and won't be for a while.

 

[Phrazbit]

Sign me up to watch the three point contest, over watching the dunk contest.

Agreed. What gets me most about the dunk contest is the fake excitement. A guy whiffs a dunk attempt 3 times, then finally gets it, and what matters most is how canned the reactions are among the stars in attendance.

Sports the rely on judging always irk me... and when the judges seem to factor if Kendrick Perkins is pretending to be impressed and waving a towel around... then I can hardly watch.

 

[Hoop Head]

Booker was at the Rising Star game cheering on Ayton, which is good to see. I don't think there have been any recent talk of the team not getting along but this should help keep that from being a story for a little while.

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[Hoop Head]

Agreed. What gets me most about the dunk contest is the fake excitement. A guy whiffs a dunk attempt 3 times, then finally gets it, and what matters most is how canned the reactions are among the stars in attendance.

Sports the rely on judging always irk me... and when the judges seem to factor if Kendrick Perkins is pretending to be impressed and waving a towel around... then I can hardly watch.

I can't agree with your post enough. I remember the dunk contests from the early 90's back when it was hard for a player to get a 50 and when the dunk contest actually created stars, in a way. No one really knew who JR Rider or Harold Minor were until they did amazing things in the dunk contest that elevated their profiles because they managed to get 50's on 1 of their dunks. There was no guarantee that someone would get a 50.

The announcing and presentation wasn't awful back then either. Now you have Kenny Smith yelling on a mic throughout the whole contest about how "This will be special, we're going to see something great, get ready, get ready" and basically repeating those lines over and over in between dunks.

I'd much rather catch the highlights of the dunk contest later and avoid all of the BS that they add to it now. Then I can see the good dunks without all of the misses, which does skew perspective some but the judging doesn't really matter much anymore anyway. Aaron Gordon stole the show 2 years in a row but never got an actual dunk contest title for that.

It's rare that the best dunk will even earn someone a win now because it's turned into a weird sort of concert/karaoke type experience in which the winner is the one who put on the best show, not just with their dunks but how they kept people entertained between dunks and attempts as well as what sort of gimmick they roll out.

 

[Ronin]

The announcing and presentation wasn't awful back then either. Now you have Kenny Smith yelling on a mic throughout the whole contest about how "This will be special, we're going to see something great, get ready, get ready" and basically repeating those lines over and over in between dunks.

The Magic Johnson and Kenny Smith pairing was like nails on a chalk board.

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[Ronin]

my favorite wtf dunk during the dunk contest.

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[HeHasRosen]

I know defense isn't really played during All-Star games but Ayton had the worst plus/minus of anyone involved in the Rising Stars game tonight with a -22. He played in 22 minutes after starting at Center for the World team. He shot 7 of 12 from the field, 0 for 4 from 3pt range, and 1 for 1 on FT's to go with 8 boards, 5 assists, and 0 turnovers.

Link to boxscore for those interested.
https://www.nba.com/games/20190215/WLDUSA#/boxscore


I'm not trying to pick on Ayton, I just find it kind of funny he ended up with the worst +/- of anyone involved in this game after he went on record saying he plays good defense. He has the potential, for sure, but he needs to apply himself a bit more on the defensive end and take it personally when opponents score in the paint against him. He has all of the tools to be a beast down low and make opponents fear driving while he's on the court but he's not there now and won't be for a while.

I agree with your assessment but if you saw the game there was absolutely no D being played whatsoever. Both teams were just clearing the paint and letting guys get dunks. Ayton was complimented many times by the broadcasting team and I would say him and Trey Young had the best all around games. But yes his defense suck.

Charles Barkley made a top 5 list of all the players and said Ayton was 6th but would be on there if the suns ever passed him the ball instead of just jacking up 3's. Thought that was funny

 

[slinslin]

I know defense isn't really played during All-Star games but Ayton had the worst plus/minus of anyone involved in the Rising Stars game tonight with a -22. He played in 22 minutes after starting at Center for the World team. He shot 7 of 12 from the field, 0 for 4 from 3pt range, and 1 for 1 on FT's to go with 8 boards, 5 assists, and 0 turnovers.

Link to boxscore for those interested.
https://www.nba.com/games/20190215/WLDUSA#/boxscore


I'm not trying to pick on Ayton, I just find it kind of funny he ended up with the worst +/- of anyone involved in this game after he went on record saying he plays good defense. He has the potential, for sure, but he needs to apply himself a bit more on the defensive end and take it personally when opponents score in the paint against him. He has all of the tools to be a beast down low and make opponents fear driving while he's on the court but he's not there now and won't be for a while.

this has to be the biggest shitpost of all time.

+/- from the rising stars allstar game LOL!

Luka was -17!

 

[Hoop Head]

I agree with your assessment but if you saw the game there was absolutely no D being played whatsoever. Both teams were just clearing the paint and letting guys get dunks. Ayton was complimented many times by the broadcasting team and I would say him and Trey Young had the best all around games. But yes his defense suck.

Charles Barkley made a top 5 list of all the players and said Ayton was 6th but would be on there if the suns ever passed him the ball instead of just jacking up 3's. Thought that was funny

I only caught the 2nd half, ended up distracted and missed the 1st. I know they don't play defense, or much defense, but I found it humorous how he came out and said people cherry pick things to criticize about his game and how he's a good defender but 3-4 days later he has the worst plus/minus of anyone in the game and it wasn't because of limited minutes either. Had it been a different player that said that and had that happen I would have been able to enjoy it a little more but since he is a Sun it stung a little also. It reminded me of the Josh Jackson quote about how he doesn't know how to play bad basketball despite having the worst advance stats in the league at that time, I think his win share and per were both the lowest amongst all qualifying players.

 

[Hoop Head]

this has to be the biggest shitpost of all time.

+/- from the rising stars allstar game LOL!

Luka was -17!

No, the worst is when you said the Suns would regret trading Chriss. Second place would be just last week when you swore up and down how everyone was wrong about Ryan Anderson's salary next season and then made up a lame excuse after Larry Coon himself was able to clear that up and prove that you were wrong but you still haven't admitted to being wrong or apologized for calling everyone idiots because they disagreed with you, although they were right to do so since you were wrong.


I like how you still brought up Luka's though, even though I'm not one of the people who said he should be picked by us and was and am still in the "Ayton was the right choice" camp. Luka's was still better than Ayton's so why mention it if doing so for Ayton makes it a "shitpost"? I don't expect you to respond in a reasonable way but I thought I'd ask still because whatever you say will be entertaining.

 

[AzStevenCal]

I can't agree with your post enough. I remember the dunk contests from the early 90's back when it was hard for a player to get a 50 and when the dunk contest actually created stars, in a way. No one really knew who JR Rider or Harold Minor were until they did amazing things in the dunk contest that elevated their profiles because they managed to get 50's on 1 of their dunks. There was no guarantee that someone would get a 50.

The announcing and presentation wasn't awful back then either. Now you have Kenny Smith yelling on a mic throughout the whole contest about how "This will be special, we're going to see something great, get ready, get ready" and basically repeating those lines over and over in between dunks.

I'd much rather catch the highlights of the dunk contest later and avoid all of the BS that they add to it now. Then I can see the good dunks without all of the misses, which does skew perspective some but the judging doesn't really matter much anymore anyway. Aaron Gordon stole the show 2 years in a row but never got an actual dunk contest title for that.

It's rare that the best dunk will even earn someone a win now because it's turned into a weird sort of concert/karaoke type experience in which the winner is the one who put on the best show, not just with their dunks but how they kept people entertained between dunks and attempts as well as what sort of gimmick they roll out.

You must have been very young or very busy, Harold Minor earned his "baby Jordan" nickname under George Raveling at USC and was very well known. And JR Rider was already infamous for misspelling his own name while a student at UNLV.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

You must have been very young or very busy, Harold Minor earned his "baby Jordan" nickname under George Raveling at USC and was very well known. And JR Rider was already infamous for misspelling his own name while a student at UNLV.

Yeah I thought the same then remembered that not everyone loves all sports and chalked it up to maybe he didn’t follow ncaa hoops. If I recall correctly baby Jordan had a whole spread in sports illustrated.

 

[Hoop Head]

You must have been very young or very busy, Harold Minor earned his "baby Jordan" nickname under George Raveling at USC and was very well known. And JR Rider was already infamous for misspelling his own name while a student at UNLV.

I was 9 when Miner won his first dunk contest and while I did follow the Suns, I didn't watch a lot of NBA or basketball games that didn't feature them. The only other basketball I remember from the early 90's was the ASU teams with Stevin Smith and Mario Bennett. So I think the young part of your post applies. I was busy with juice boxes and homework also but I don't think those kept me from basketball that much.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Yeah I thought the same then remembered that not everyone loves all sports and chalked it up to maybe he didn’t follow ncaa hoops. If I recall correctly baby Jordan had a whole spread in sports illustrated.

Yeah Baby Jordan hit the SI big time. We didn't have the internet coverage that we do today (obviously) but both Minor and JR would have been pretty famous to anyone on this site if they were doing their thing and getting the same publicity they got back then. And I'm only a little embarrassed to admit I fell for the Baby Jordan hype.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Yeah Baby Jordan hit the SI big time. We didn't have the internet coverage that we do today (obviously) but both Minor and JR would have been pretty famous to anyone on this site if they were doing their thing and getting the same publicity they got back then. And I'm only a little embarrassed to admit I fell for the Baby Jordan hype.

I did too. I was also convinced that Clarence Witherspoon would be the next Barkley. After that also failed I figured I’d better stop looking for the “next” whomever.