Please do yourself a favor and look at Stephen Graham’s role in this play on more time. For those who don’t know, he’s #26 for the Nets, brother of Joey, and defending Daniels in the top of the clip.

Graham uses the good ol’ “deny the wing pass 30 feet away, and two passes away from the ball” defensive technique. It’s always nice to get beat backdoor when your man has no chance of catching a pass, and especially when no coach in the history of the NBA (not even Vinny Del Negro) would want you to deny. So thanks, Stephen, for two points. Without your help, this alley-oop never would have happened.

Not to be overshadowed by Graham’s putrid defense was Daniels’s rare display of his vertical leap, and Robinson’s timely and on-the-money delivery.

I once had a play like this. Sadly, I wasn’t the one crossing over and dunking. Dunking wasn’t exactly what one would call my specialty. At only 6’2″, I embody the “white men can’t jump theory.” Instead, I was the one harmlessly falling onto the ground while a highlight was being made. I can still remember trying to play it off like the floor was slippery. Borrowing a towel from the bench, I pretended to wipe the area dry. Of course, it was already dry. I was just the victim of severely broken ankles.

In other news, the Pargo dunk is even better with a different set of announcers. Click the jump. Read more »

Christian Jones is a 6’6″ power forward from Arlington, Texas. He is unranked by Rivals nationally, and even unranked in his own state. He sure can dunk, though.

Yeah, Doc’s boy is decent. Austin Rivers, the nation’s top senior recruit, has already scored 1,981 high school points (as of November 21, so maybe more by now). In other words, about 1,900 more points than I notched in college. And oh yeah, he’s going to Duke. So all you Tar Heel fans can do this.

Is there anything in the world more beautiful than Ray Allen’s jumper?

Two thoughts about this dunk, neither of which mentions Serge Ibaka’s role (mostly because that was pretty self-explanatory).

First, Eric Maynor. I’m in love with his game. He’s not a great point guard, or even a starter. His stats don’t scream “star,” nor do they even scream “average.” But Maynor plays with a certain pace to his game that makes him the envy of my adolescent fantasies. And no, not like that you sickos. I wanted to learn to play like him. I wanted to somehow learn to lull my defender to sleep, then burst by. I wanted to dribble one way, slowly, and then cross over and — BAM! — be gone on my way to the hoop.

Will Maynor ever develop into a star? Or even a starter? Probably not. But his style still pleases me. Aesthetically, there aren’t too many other players I’d rather watch.

Second, the Thunder have been a disappointing 5-4 to start the season. But is that really disappointing? Kelly Dwyer examined the problems today for Ball Don’t Lie, terming the Thunder’s start a “self-induced holding pattern.” In other words, they made no additions this offseason. They shouldn’t have really been expected to take the proverbial leap.

I wrote the following words in an email to a few of my buddies, before the Celtics played the Thunder the first time.

“In regards to the Thunder being underrated or overrated, they’re the classic ‘underrated until overrated’ team. They were the 8th seed last year, people! They signed nobody of importance this summer! That does not mean they will be title contenders!

“I suspect they will be a little better than last year, mostly due to their youth improving. But people jumped on the bandwagon too early. This isn’t a contending team, yet.”

I stand by my statement. The Thunder shouldn’t be expected to contend this year. While most of the NBA contenders reloaded this offseason, the Thunder stayed pat. And maybe that’s the right move for the long haul (in Sam Presti We Trust), but for this year alone it doesn’t bode well. This is a young team, still, even if it’s also a very talented one. They will suffer speed bumps along the way to greatness, especially since the roster as presently constructed is inherently flawed.