All Star Weekend Predictions

Proctus · Post by **Proctus** » February 19, 2005, 2:43 am

Fan Favoratism aside, let's get some friendly predictions going for the weekend!

All Star Dunk Contest

Chris Andersen
J.R. Smith
Josh Smith
Amare Staudemire

3 Point Contest

Voshon Leonard
Joe Johnson
Quentin Richardson
Kyle Korver
Ray Allen
Vladimir Radmanovic

All Star Game

Western Conferance Starters

Tracy McGrady
Kobe Bryant
Kevin Garnett
Tim Duncan
Yao Ming

Western Conferance Bench

Steve Nash
Ray Allen
Dirk Nowitzki
Manu Ginobli
Rashard Lewis
Shawn Marion
Amare Staudemire

Eastern Conferance Starters

Lebron James
Vince Carter
Allen Iverson
Grant Hill
Shaquille O'Neal

Eastern Conferance Bench

Gilbert Arenas
Antwawn Jamison
Dwayne Wade
Zydrunas Ilgauskas
Jermaine O'Neal
Paul Pierce
Ben Wallace

Seems to be a lot of talent for the All star game. Lots of young talent too.
Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Amare Staudemire, and Gilbert Arenas just to name a few.

Although it looks pretty even in terms of talent, I believe that Shaq's inside presence will give the East a slight advantage (let alone they actually have a back up center on the bench).

It'll be interesting to see how Lebron and Dwayne play together with Shaq against Tim, Kevin, and Kobe. Will this be the game that defines the newer generation of players or will experience stand the test of time?

I give East the edge, 4 points over the West.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » February 19, 2005, 3:15 am

Dunk: Amare
Three Pointers: Q-Rich
Skills Competition: Nash
West wins All Star Game
All Star MVP: Shawn Marion

Bold Prediction:

Joe Johnson gets shut out of the All Star Awards and afterwards Kelshara says it's not good enough that all five Suns were invited to All Star Weekend and that the Suns suck because only 4 of the 5 Suns attending end up winning awards.

Spang · Post by **Spang** » February 19, 2005, 4:34 am

who cares?

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » February 19, 2005, 12:05 pm

Bold Prediction:

Joe Johnson gets shut out of the All Star Awards and afterwards Kelshara says it's not good enough that all five Suns were invited to All Star Weekend and that the Suns suck because only 4 of the 5 Suns attending end up winning awards.

I can guarantee you that prediction is as wrong as everything else you babble. I have no plans of wasting my time watching this crap so I have no plans to comment on it either.

I couldn't give a flying fuck about the all-star weekend. That dunk contest line-up is pathetic.

Of course the really sad thing is that I never went out that strongly against the Suns. I just said they wont win the championship, and I stand by that. However, in typical Winnow fashion, he reads what he wants to read.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » February 19, 2005, 3:22 pm

Kelshara wrote:
Bold Prediction:

Joe Johnson gets shut out of the All Star Awards and afterwards Kelshara says it's not good enough that all five Suns were invited to All Star Weekend and that the Suns suck because only 4 of the 5 Suns attending end up winning awards.
I can guarantee you that prediction is as wrong as everything else you babble. I have no plans of wasting my time watching this crap so I have no plans to comment on it either.

I couldn't give a flying fuck about the all-star weekend. That dunk contest line-up is pathetic.

Of course the really sad thing is that I never went out that strongly against the Suns. I just said they wont win the championship, and I stand by that. However, in typical Winnow fashion, he reads what he wants to read.

Your pal LeBron not participating in the dunk contest isn't the rest of the contestant's fault. They can only compete against the other players that have the nads to do something different for a change to entertain their fans while on All Star break. LeBron would have won simply because he's LeBron but the greedy bastard wanted 1 million bucks just like the greedy bastard Barry Bonds got paid for the HR competition. At least Amare doesn't have a fucked up attitude like LeBron is already getting. (sorry, there's no way around dissing the fans by asking for 1 million) Consideration number two is that LeBron is worried that he wouldn't win (due to bad luck with some missed dunks) and hurt his endorsement opportunities...yet another financially based lame ass reason.

That said, I'd rather have All Star weekend not take place at all. The game doesn't matter and is played differently than a normal game. So if we're stuck with the weekend's activities, at least the dunk competition is visually entertaining and it's nice to see at least some players not fucked up enough with their own egos (when it comes to money) that will still participate in it.

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » February 19, 2005, 3:27 pm

My pal? Except for the fact that I'd call him the best player in NBA right now I don't particularly like him. I'm not even a Cavs fan!

Once again you pull stuff out of your ass. Surprise surprise.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » February 19, 2005, 3:35 pm

Kelshara wrote:My pal? Except for the fact that I'd call him the best player in NBA right now I don't particularly like him. I'm not even a Cavs fan!

Once again you pull stuff out of your ass. Surprise surprise.

My ass is working as intended!

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » February 20, 2005, 1:21 pm

i think Josh smith would have beaten Lebron James last night.

That old-school Nique dunk was awesome.

his last 3 dunks had all of the NBA stars jumping up and down. When you do that, I think that says a lot.

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » February 20, 2005, 1:26 pm

Actually got to watch some of it due to having some people over who wanted to see it.. Josh Smith was awesome. Clearly the best of them. Would have been fun to see a contest between let's see...

LeBron James
Josh Smith
Vince Carter
Kobe Bryant
Whoever I forgot here

Btw what was all that talk about a million dollars?

My ass is working as intended!

With all the shit you spew we knew that already

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » February 20, 2005, 4:17 pm

Nash should have won the dunk competition!

Well, not a bad showing by Phoenix even with a 2nd place finish by Amare. Josh deserved first for sure but I'd like to see a highlight reel fo Amare and Josh's regular season dunks...Amare has a ton of nasty slams and not all breakaway dunks where you have time to prepare...power face dunks with Duncan and Garnett and other big time defenders on him one on one.

Nash 1st in skills, Q-Rich 1st in 3 point comp..a 1, 1, 2 finish aint too shabby. It must have been rigged!

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » February 20, 2005, 5:15 pm

Amare is a power dunker, not a finesse dunker. I thought his first dunk in the slam dunk competition got scored too high though.. I thought the two Smiths' dunks were better than his first. The second was awesome but mostly because of Nash.

No surprise that Nash won the skills competition, that was as expected. Would have been interesting to see Tony Parker in it, he is pretty damn quick as well. And add Stojakovic to the 3-point contest!

Sueven · Post by **Sueven** » February 20, 2005, 5:48 pm

Stojakovic used to be in the three-point competition. I believe he won it twice in a row before being knocked off by Voshon Lenard last year. They seem to retire regular winners after they get knocked off (a la Jason Richardson).

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » February 20, 2005, 6:27 pm

Yeah I know he used to, didn't watch last year so didn't know he got knocked off then...

Q-Rich was as streaky in the 3-point competition as he is in a game! Miss 10 then hit 10! And damn his shot was ugly as hell from the right side but pretty from the left!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » February 20, 2005, 8:55 pm

Kelshara wrote:Yeah I know he used to, didn't watch last year so didn't know he got knocked off then...

Q-Rich was as streaky in the 3-point competition as he is in a game! Miss 10 then hit 10! And damn his shot was ugly as hell from the right side but pretty from the left!

Q's best when he shoots the three from the middle left or right. JJ seems to do best from the baseline. Q is also best when he shoots fast. If he has too much time to think about it he misses. JJ is the opposite in that respect as well. You can count it if no one's in JJ face when he shoots.

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » February 20, 2005, 9:10 pm

He shot extremely flat from the right side.. or so it looked to me while I was half watching heh. Had what, 2 complete airballs to start off the second round?

xZiBiT · Post by **xZiBiT** » February 21, 2005, 12:50 am

I watched the 3 point contest, no one deserved to win it. They need to get people that can shoot the rock in the contest. Sure, Richardson hit 9 straight but no one in the first round scored over 14 and that is ridiculous. None of them deserved to be in the contest, much less get money for winning it. And I fully believe that Amare shopuld have been dropped in the second round, either his first dunk should have been scored lower or J.R. Smiths first dunk should have been higher. Amare did a relatively easy dunk compared to Smiths' behind the back dunk. (Never even seen that one before)

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » February 21, 2005, 12:55 am

eh both Korver and Q-Rich can shoot just fine. And btw Lenard scored 17 in the first round btw so you are wrong. So you had one that scored 14 and 18 (Korver), one that scored 14 and 19 (Q-Rich) and one that scored 17 and 16 (Lenard).

I'd call that a pretty decent competition myself.

xZiBiT · Post by **xZiBiT** » February 21, 2005, 2:48 pm

I forgot about Leonard, then again he hasn't played since the first game of the season so he shouldn't have been able to compete anyways. If you don't play the final game before the allstar game, you are disqualified from participating. The same rule should be applied to the skill (or lack thereof) competitions.

The contest was terrible. Even Ray Allen's silky smooth jumper looked ridiculously awful. Richardson shooting airballs and missing the rim entirely in the finals was equally painful at least until he knocked down nine straight (up to that point it was ugly). I'm sorry but I'd rather watch pure shooterslike Craig Hodges, Mark Price, or Larry Bird over Q-Rich, Korver, and Leonard. Shit, I bet Tim Legler could have joined the competition and won the damn thing and he's been out of the league for at least three years. And why wouldn't he be able to join, I mean damn they let Leonard join with a ruptured achilles. And I'm sorry Suns' fans but Q-Richardson is not the best long range shooter in the game.

P.S. the suns had a tremendous showing, props to them

Proctus · Post by **Proctus** » February 21, 2005, 4:05 pm

You mention Pure shooters yet you forget to mention Steve Kerr! =D

Personally, I think Pop played Ginobli just a bit too much on Sunday. Shawn Marion did very well for the time he was in, and why would you even consider not playing Duncan or Garnett in the 4th period? What a bummer!

xZiBiT · Post by **xZiBiT** » February 21, 2005, 4:44 pm

Garnett and Duncan got voted in as starters, yet they only played 16 minutes a piece. I wonder if it was Pop holding them out or those guys wanting to sit out? I think Pop would intentionally hold Duncan out to both rest Duncan and to prevent the slight possibility of him getting injured. On the other hand, Van Gundy is disgusting in his preferential treatment of his players. Arenas and Jamison deserved more minutes and Wade didn't deserve the amount he got.

P.S. Sorry about forgetting Kerr. He was lights out for the Bulls in a couple of Championships.