This year's slam dunk contest is going to be quite different, as the marquee event of All-Star Saturday night has been turned into a team event, with fans then voting on a 'dunker of the night.'
It goes against tradition, the crowning of a dunk champion won't feel the same and the freestyle round that gives each participant 90 seconds to do as many dunks as they want could get sloppy. But the dunk contest hasn't been what it used to be in terms of quality for some time now, and one of its most cited criticisms is a lack of star power.
With Paul George, Damian Lillard, John Wall, defending champion Terrence Ross, Harrison Barnes and Ben McLemore, however, that won't be as much of an issue this year.
On that note, here's a little of what the six participants are going to bring to the table next Saturday:
Terrence Ross
Ross' winning combination in last year's dunk contest was probably a little underrated because of the overall quality of the competition, and he'll likely have to do more to impress this season with bigger name stars joining in. The sophomore appears to be up to the challenge, however. Just ask Kenneth Faried.
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Paul George
Best part about the call on George's in-game 360 windmill - Quinn Buckner's hilarious "ohhh yeaahhhhh!" or his confession that he hopes George doesn't take part in the dunk contest for fear of being worn out?
Somebody give Quinn the bad news. And ask him what he thinks about Damian Lillard taking part in five events that weekend while you're at it.
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Damian Lillard
Lillard didn't exactly wow the crowd when he won a high school dunk contest back in 2008, and his big in-game dunks have all been of the more straightforward, poster variety, so whether he can execute creative jams on Saturday night remains to be seen.
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John Wall
The ease with which Wall went up for that behind the back dunk in the Rookie/Sophomore game a couple of years ago seems like a pretty good indicator of his dunk contest ability.
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Harrison Barnes
With the amount of height and hang time Barnes gets on his jams, he should be able to come up with something pretty creative up there. Plus, did you see that reverse in the playoffs?
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Ben McLemore
McLemore is definitely the wild card in this competition and the guy with the least star appeal, but his high school dunk contest performance was a heck of a lot more impressive than Lillard's.
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In recent years we've usually been left at least a little disappointed by the dunk contest. Maybe this season, with a change of format and a change of pace that has most of us skeptically scratching our heads, these six youngsters will finally leave us pleasantly surprised.
