NBA ROCK

Gotta love this time of year. Last minute trades abound, the annual All-Star game, and all of the little things in between. Little things like the Playstation Skills Challenge. Last year Dwayne Wade took it home. This year, he’s gonna try to repeat.

2008 Playstation Skills Challenge Participants

• Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat
• Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets
• Jason Kidd of the (maybe not for long!) New Jersey Nets
• Deron Williams of the Utah Jazz

Dunno about you folks, but I’m certainly excited to see this year’s skills challenge. I’m gonna go ahead and put my money on Dwayne Wade to uphold his title. My only doubts about Wade not getting it this year would be his long-range jumper. I’m more than confident in his mid-range jumper, his passing, and his ball handling. But it’s his long-range jumper that worries me. My rankings for the skills challenge:

1. Dwayne Wade
2. Deron Williams
3. Chris Paul
4. Jason Kidd

3-point shootout! Jason Kapono defends his title! He’s holding the highest 3p% of all the participants this year, too:

• Jason Kapono - 51%
• Daniel Gibson - 47%
• Richard Hamilton - 47%
• Steve Nash - 47%
• Dirk Nowitzki - 30%
• Peja Stojakovic - 46%

Who’s going to win? I’m going with Daniel Gibson — just because I love him so much. Yeah, sorry about the Cavs bias! No, wait, I’m not! But honestly, I think it’s a toss-up this year. Sure Dirk’s 3P% is dismal in comparison to the other participants this year, but he could always turn that around during the competition.

The T-Mobile Rookie Challenge goes to…Err, I mean: The T-Mobile Kevin Durant + Al Horford vs. Brandon Roy + LaMarcus Aldridge goes to the SOPHS. I didn’t have a doubt in my mind last year that the sophomores would wipe the floor with the rooks (which they did). But this year, even though I’m a bit more timid about it, I’m still going for the sophomores. They do, after all, have a year’s-worth (well 1.5 years or something) of experience under their belts!

Slam Dunk Contest! Always fun…always. Right when I thought it was starting to get a little mundane and uncreative, Dwight Howard puts a sticker on the backboard and slams it home — THEN PROCEEDS TO GET ROBBED BY THE JUDGES! 8, 8, 8, 9, UGH! My vote for this year’s slam dunk contest winner is Dwight Howard. Though I’m looking forward to seeing what Rudy Gay throws down.

dwight4prezz kindly linked us to this YouTube video of Dwight Howard’s dunks which gives us a fantastic sneak peak.