Less than 24 hours to go before the NBA season of 2014-15 begins on Tuesday night on with the defending champions San Antonio Spurs going up against their state rivals Dallas Mavericks. Despite the excitement and buzz for the upcoming season, instead of looking ahead for what this new season holds for all teams let’s look back at the previous season one last time with the best and most entertaining category there is - the best dunks. LeBron James (16), Blake Griffin (12), DeAndre Jordan (11), Gerald Green (10) and Taj Gibson (6) were the top 5 players with most “dunk of the night” awards last year.In these top five only two of them make it to the list of the top-5 dunks. Postering, degree of difficulty and complexity of the dunks are the top parameters to decide the rankings. Here are the best dunks from last season.
#5 Gerald Green
Phoenix Suns guard Gerald Green exploded on to the scene last season along with the team’s suprising performance. He had numerous dunks last season but this one stood out. In a road game against the Brooklyn Nets, Green dunked the ball with a double pump move on a fastbreak off a steal over Nets rookie Mason Plumlee.
No doubt the dunk is extremely acrobatic and scores a 10 on degree of difficulty but it loses out on posterising and complexity.
#4 Blake Griffin
Initially known as just as a dunker, Blake Griffin as evolved over the years to become more productive for the Los Angeles Clippers. Nonetheless, he hasn’t lost his monstrous dunking ability yet and it doesn’t look the day he will stop dunking is close by. He posterises Kris Humhries for no.4 on the list of top slams.
Griffin gets full marks for posterising (which he does almost all the time) and degree of difficulty but at the end of the end it was a simple throwdown which keeps at no.4.
#3 Xavier Henry
Xavier Henry’s poster over Utah Jazz rookie Jeff Whitey during a home game in November was an early season Dunk of the Year candidate. If the category was only postering, this dunk would have probably been at the top of the list but considering there was no contest at the rim, it’s third on the list of top dunks of the season.
#2 Paul George
Ideally on a fastbreak off a steal any player would just do a simple layup or dunk but it wasn’t the same case with Paul George. In a game against the Los Angeles Clippers, George decided to go creative. He did a 360 windmill dunk, similar to the one Vince Carter performed in 2000 that made the world take notice.
Complexity wise George gets a full 10 still this wasn’t the top dunk of last season. With no defense, the degree of difficulty was lesser which allowed him to take his own sweet time before performing the stunt.
#1 Terrence Ross
In another world, George’s 360 would have won the best dunk of the year but not when Terrence Ross has something to do about it. Member of the Toronto Raptors, Ross just like a majority of the dunks on the list, goes for it on a fastbreak off a steal.
Not only does he tomohawk it but he does it on a well sized forward the MANIMAL Kenneth Faried. Faried might have gotten a bigger paycheck for this season but he is on the wrong side of a poster dunk which is the best of last season.
Guess the Lakers players!
