Tag Archives: harrison barnes

A Look at the 2014 NBA Slam Dunk Contest Participants

John Wall gets high.

John Wall gets high. Will he win the 2014 Slam-Dunk Contest?

It was announced today that the 2014 Slam Dunk Contest participants will include Paul George, Damian Lillard, John Wall, and defending champion Terrence Ross, according to ESPN. Ben McLemore and Harrison Barnes are mentioned as the two others who are expected to round out the six-man field.

All are firmly in BMF territory as dunkers. But who’s the best?

The point of this post isn’t to pontificate about who’s the best dunker. That’s a matter of personal aesthetic preference: The dunk, like other special types of basketball shots, is more an art than a science.

That said, it’s fun to see what each participant has in his arsenal – and then to watch the contest to see if they have anything new up their sleeves.

Without further ado, here’s a video compilation of each participant. Enjoy.

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Timberwolves at Warriors Preview: Can We Get A Win?

Malcolm Lee and the Minnesota Timberwolves look to stop Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors tonight in Oakland

Fresh off a 103-95 Friday-night loss in Portland, the Wolves play Golden State tonight at 9:30 PM CST in Oaktown.

It seems like the Wolves are getting a relatively easy road game the night after a tough loss, but a closer look suggests otherwise. The Warriors have:

  • the better record on the season (7-6, vs. the Wolves’ 5-6)
  • more momentum (GSW have won 4 of their last 6, the Wolves have a 4-game losing streak)
  • a history of being Twolf killers (GSW has won 10 of the last 12 head-to-heads against the Wolves) 

Things get bad for Team Adelman if they lose this one. Continue reading

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A Better Effort (Warriors 106, WOLVES 98)

A few years back, Harrison Barnes was supposed to be The Next Kobe. Expectations have since dropped, but his NBA career is off to a solid start.

I knew I wasn’t [completely] overreacting to that bad loss on Wednesday night.  Despite the injuries that have overhauled the Wolves starting unit, the team still has enough talent and grit to play competitive basketball.  “Competitive basketball” would have prevailed against the Bobcats that night.  Last night’s game was fun to watch because expectations were low and the game remained in doubt into the closing possessions.  Unfortunately, the comeback was incomplete and the Warriors prevailed.  The “Good Job. Good Effort.” feel to this loss was on clearest display on the game’s pivotal possessions.  Dante Cunningham had just pulled down one of the most impressive offensive rebounds I have ever seen.  He FLEW through the air from the top of the key and collected Luke’s missed trey at a ridiculously high point.  Cunningham was then fouled and, after a Warriors timeout, hit a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to 3 points with under 3 minutes to play.  Golden State ran a high ball screen for Jarrett Jack (Steph Curry had fouled out of the game) with David Lee being the screen and roller.  Cunningham defended the entire play perfectly, even anticipating Lee’s spin move to a lefty turnaround.  Lee somehow managed to make the shot. Tip the hat to Lee, because he played a great game against a slightly-overmatched team.

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League Pass Alert, Vol. 2: Rookies You (Might) Want To Watch

Did David Kahn cross Jones III off his list after seeing this smile? (Photo by Getty Images)

Andy G and I are doing a series on players you’ll be watching for one reason or another this season on League Pass.

The first installment is here: https://punchdrunkwolves.com/2012/08/23/all-league-pass-team-vol-1-rookies-you-want-to-watch/

 In the first League Pass Alert post, I looked at the rookies you’re gonna wanna see this year on #leaguepass. Think of that as our League Pass All-Rookie 1st team. Think of this one as the 2nd team, the guys you’ll watch when the first teamers aren’t on.

Check it out below the fold.

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Musings on the Draft

Jay Bilas had a nice piece (Insider) yesterday on NBA Draft prospects who have star potential. Bilas isn’t perfect, but (1) he has a good feel for the draft by virtue of actually having seen most players play multiple times, and (2) he sees the forest for the trees on this issue–the draft is all about identifying potential impact players – stars – which is correlated, but not synonymous, with college advanced stats.

It’s a deep draft, but beyond Anthony Davis it isn’t clear who will break out as the kind of player teams  later regret passing on.

Bilas sees five potential stars in the draft–maybe more.

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