There's A New Leader In The Clubhouse For The Dunk Of The Year And His Name Is Shaedon Sharpe

Stephen Gosling. Getty Images.

As the self-proclaimed unofficial but kind of official keeper of The Dunk Of The Year race, it's been a bit of a down season if we're being honest. Guys like Ant haven't had anything truly insane yet. Ja Morant had some cool individual dunks, but no big time posters. I'm not sure if players are being more cautious with trying to catch a body or for whatever reason there just haven't been as many opportunities, but we really only had two candidates that I would deem worthy up until now. The first being Brandon Miller

and the guy who I currently had in the lead for this award, Tre Mann

Well I'm happy to report, we have a new entrant to this race and someone who perhaps might even now be in the lead depending on your personal preference

Now that has pretty much everything I'm looking for in a Dunk Of The Year candidate. Look at where Sharpe takes off from

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Anytime you take off from that far away from the circle, you have my attention. It's no surprise that Sharpe went for a dunk like this, it's sort of his thing. The man can fly. He welcomes the defender and gets ready to battle at the top

Once we get to that part of the dunk, another 10/10 performance. Absorbs the contact at the top and we got a full extension with the ball

At this point he's half way home to an A+ poster, but it all comes down to the finish. When you cock it back like that and take on the body, you have to finish the dunk cleanly for this to truly stand out

Perfect. A clean finish, clear contact with the rim, 10/10 no notes.

The end result? An absolute contender for Dunk Of The Year and for my money, the new leader in the clubhouse. Congratulations to Shaedon Sharpe on taking over the lead, and now just pray nobody does anything better over the next few weeks and the award if yours.