There's A New Leader In The Clubhouse For The Dunk Of The Summer And His Name Is Alondes Williams
Megan Briggs. Getty Images.It was only a handful of days ago we had our first entry into the "Dunk Of The Summer" contest when Zhaire Smith executed one of the most impressive posters you'll ever see
Not a bad way to kick us off if you ask me, but a new challenger has now entered the arena and his name is Alondes Williams
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It's OK if you've never heard of Alondes Williams before, he's only played in 8 total NBA games for a total of 21 minutes. He made 7 appearances for the Heat last year and averaged 0.7 points per game. But that's the beauty of Summer League, none of that shit matters in these games. If you do something awesome, that's all you need.
And make no mistake, that dunk was very awesome. Different from the Zhaire Smith dunk because it wasn't your typical poster where he went through his defender, but in my opinion it was even more impressive, which is the beauty of this contest. The winner doesn't have to be a monster poster dunk, so let's take a look at it through the same type of lense we did with Zhaire Smith.
1. Insanely impressive liftoff distance
As you can see above, Smith went off two feet from just inside the block. That's partially what made it so impressive. Here, we see Williams take off from generally the same area, only off one foot
Still an impressive distance in my mind, especially with the defender rotating over. This is another situation where the defender has to make a decision to where you either foul the player so he can't get a shot off, or you get the hell out of the way. Once again, the defender chose neither option.
2. Absorbing contact in the air
To me, this is the first part where the dunks start to differ. Zhaire Smith's was a powerful poster dunk where he went directly through his defender. He absorbed the contact at the top and powered through.
What's awesome about Alondes Williams' dunk in this regard is there's still some contact at the top, but he's more moving around the defender
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Where I think his becomes more impressive is that while this contact is happening, watch again how far back/low he brings the ball with his right hand. That is patently ridiculous. To me, absorbing the contact at the top, protecting the ball like that so it doesn't get blocked since the defenders hands weren't straight up, and THEN dropping the hammer makes it a 10 out of 10 dunk in my opinion.
3. Bring the thunder
The most important part of any of these types of dunks. If you can't finish it off cleanly, it defeats the whole purpose. It's a nice highlight but not a holy shit what a fucking dunk type of highlight. As we see, there's no problem whatsoever in terms of a clean and powerful finish
The perfect way to end such a monster dunk attempt. Clean into the basket, full grab of the rim, it's hard to cap off a dunk better than that. You then add the primal scream at the end while everyone collectively tries to make sense of what we just witnessed makes it even better. It's at that moment where nobody gives a shit if this guy isn't an NBA quality player, awesome dunks will always play no matter who provides it.
As a quick sidebar, the Heat have sneaky had a very good time in Vegas. Jaime Jacquez Jr looks WAY better than everyone else which is a fantastic sign for any Year 2 player, their rookie Kel'el Ware looks solid as hell and should only get better as he puts on NBA muscle, and Josh Christopher has the look of the next Heat bargain player that nobody else in the league really wanted and somehow makes 5 3PM to swing a game in a playoff series.
They can now also add leader in the clubhouse for Dunk Of The Summer, which everyone knows is the most coveted award the league has this time of year.