To me what they should do is keep an actual timer and impose a small penalty if the pass is not completed. This is because if a player misses the first two passes, then there is no benefit in making the third and he doesnt need to bother trying to make it. He is no worse off than a player who missed the first two but makes the third. Best of both worlds. Alternative would be to increase it from 3 to 5 to increase the penalty a little more since it's the only pass and as some have rightly said, should be completed as part of the skills challenge.
Skills Challenge and All-Star Festivities
- Thread starter Dime Dropper
- Start date
To me what they should do is keep an actual timer and impose a small penalty if the pass is not completed. This is because if a player misses the first two passes, then there is no benefit in making the third and he doesnt need to bother trying to make it. He is no worse off than a player who missed the first two but makes the third. Best of both worlds. Alternative would be to increase it from 3 to 5 to increase the penalty a little more since it's the only pass and as some have rightly said, should be completed as part of the skills challenge.
That's a better suggestion than what @Dbeltz24 offered up, and that's something that I could actually get behind: if you want to introduce a penalty, then only let them have one attempt, or, if you disagree that the time they give up making the attempts is enough, then just add more attempts. Either idea is better than the original suggestion of adding a penalty to the existing contest.
Dbeltz24
Bench
The best and most simple idea is you do not go on until you simply finish that certain skill. No penalty would needed to be added, just put the ball thru the damn whole. Once you do that. Go onto the next skill, it isn't rocket science Slim.
And what happens when a guy keeps muffing the pass? Nobody but you wants to watch that.
steelevt
All-Star
Everyone is busy watching the guy who completed the challenge advancing and winning. No one watches the last place horse in the Kentucky derby. People are watching the fastest horse crossing the finish line.
Which makes it even less of a point to make them keep trying until they hit it.
Dbeltz24
Bench
So why not just knock the rack over when you get to the passing station, causing all balls to fall over towards where you need to throw the balls and just skip it. I mean if it doesn't matter to you if players actually complete a "skill" in a SKILLS contest, just cheat then.
What's next, no need to maneuver around the dribbling station, just run straight thru it. I mean all you basically want to see slim is somebody make a lay up and 3. What a boring set of skills for a SKILLS complete you would like.
What matters is that they keep the competition moving. If you make a rule that opens up the possibility for players to get embarrassed, then the good players are going to stop participating.
Dbeltz24
Bench
Skipping a skills competition because you're worried about not completing a pass is embarrassing enough.
The person that skips that would be like LeBron skipping the dunk contest in his early years because he was scared of getting beat. And LeBron has received plenty of criticism for that.
Yeah, he does. He still hasn't gone, though. And neither has any other player of consequence in over a decade. And, on the low, all the people who keep criticizing LeBron James for not participating in the dunk contest are also the same people who keep saying that the dunk contest isn't as big a deal because the good players won't do it.
Adding such a rule to the Skills Challenge would just be inviting players of consequence to skip that event, too.
Adding such a rule to the Skills Challenge would just be inviting players of consequence to skip that event, too.
Dbeltz24
Bench
Well they did basically make the Slam Dunk contest for the younger players once the veteran players no longer wanted to do it. Which has basically been the mold forever. Jordan, Vince Carter, Kobe and many other champions only did the contesr in there younger years. And to say that they've had "no" good players is a dumb things to say. In the past 10 years, they've had DeRozan, Wall. Paul George, Blake Griffin, Damain Lilliard, Harrison Barnes, Ibaka, Giannis, Oladipo, Iguodala, Howard and Drummond. While no top 3 player does it, to say that those entered were of "no consequence" is laughable and I guess there is no getting thru to you.
There's simply no way that making "pass the ball thru a whole" would make people not sign up for it. But hey I'll agree to disagree with you.
Is the point of the skills challenge actually spelled out somewhere? If not, you guys are all just arguing different interpretations, any of which could be correct.
But they still did it. And now, they don't.
First of All™, the 2014 dunk contest was gimmicky nonsense, and I no-sell that thing entirely, so I refuse to even count John Wall and Damian Lillard as they wouldn't have been participants in any year that didn't have that east-west tomfoolery. Second of all, I would not classify DeMar DeRozan, Harrison Barnes, Serge Ibaka, Giannis Antetekuonmpo, Victor Oladipo or Andre Iguodala as players of consequence; your mileage obviously varies. Paul George had not yet been established as a player of consequence at the time that he competed in the dunk contest. There have only been five guys since 2003 that had been named All-Stars before or during the year they competed in the dunk contest: Andre Drummond, Blake Griffin, Dwight Howard, Amar'e Stoudemire and, amusingly enough, Gerald Wallace. And, for the purposes of this conversation, I consider five out of forty to be close enough to "none" as makes no odds.
That's easy for you to say; you don't have to go out there and muff chest passes in front of millions of people.
Dbeltz24
Bench
I also do not get paid millions of dollars to play basketball. So personally, I may not be able to do it in 3 tries. But like I said, I'm not a professional basketball player. None of us on here are.
So I give you actual players who are quite valuable to the NBA, and then you critique them saying some are of no consequence. Since when is a Finals MVP(Iggy) no consequence to the league. And yes the 2014 was a weird contest. Yet they still showed up! Paul George was playing pretty good that year he was in the dunk contest. And as stated before, the NBA normally gives the dunk contest nod to rising stars. It's not like Jordan competed in a dunk contest when he was winning championships. DeRozan is a 2 time all star and his team is second in the east.
I mean I would love to hear your definition is of being of "consequence" in today's league.
If a Finals MVP and many others I named are no consequence to the league, is DMC a consequence in today's league to you?
Because give me that team of no consequence which you said, (Ibaka, DeRozan, Iggy, Barnes, Oladipo and Giannis) and I'm pretty sure that team wins a lot of games.
Yeah the only problem I have with "the time they give up making the attempts" is that the success of the final attempt is inconsequential as I mentioned earlier. So find a way around that and it'll be fine. Agree that they shouldn't just be stuck there.
steelevt
All-Star
We have a week of no kings basketball. We must keep ourselves busy somehow.Is the point of the skills challenge actually spelled out somewhere? If not, you guys are all just arguing different interpretations, any of which could be correct.
Oh believe me, I fully understand. I was going to watch one of the games from my DVR, until I remembered I got mad and deleted them all during the latest loss streak.
Sweet Christmas, this is going to be a long ****ing week...
At least we went into it on a winning streak...
