Re-Scoring every Slam Dunk Contest dunk so Jaime Jaquez reaches the final round

Miami Heat rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. had the privilege of competing in the NBA Slam Dunk competition. Unfortunately, he was eliminated in the first round, paving the way for Mac McClung to defend his title.

Did Jaquez really deserve to be eliminated so early? He was the first to dunk. Generally, the judges give the first dunker a lower score so they can set expectations for what is to come. However, Jaquez’s dunks were comparable to each of the players who reached the final round. Let’s re-score all of the dunks of the first round to secure Jaquez a spot in the final round.

Dunk 1

Jaime Jaquez Jr: Participants performed two dunks in the first round of the competition. Jaquez went first and opened with an impressive dunk, soaring above Shaquille O’Neal for the finish. He lost a couple points for missing the first time, but overall it was impressive.

Score: 48

Jacob Toppin: Jacob Toppin performed a similar type of dunk to Jaquez. Although his reverse finish was arguably more impressive, he dunked over a much smaller obstacle than O’Neal. He should not have earned a higher score than Jaquez.

Score: 47

Jaylen Brown: Jaylen Brown’s first dunk wasn't very memorable. He finished with a lot of power, but it was something you could have seen as an in-game dunk. There wasn’t anything special about it that made it dunk contest worthy.

Score: 47

Mac McClung: Mac McClung missed the first attempt of his dunk, which set the tone for the rest of the contest. Expectations were high for him. Although he finished with an impressive first dunk, it was underwhelming compared to what we saw last season. Still, it took a lot of technique to pull off his dunk.

Score: 48

Dunk 2

Jaquez: Jaquez finished his second dunk in style, sporting a Heat Culture cap. Overall, his dunk was an improvement from the first in terms of the difficulty. That’s all you can ask for.

Score: 49

Toppin: Toppin’s second dunk had a high degree of difficulty. His first attempt was a miss, which should be taken into consideration. Still, the between the legs and spin finish was very impressive. It would have been nice to see him dunk with one hand rather than two here.

Score: 48

McClung: Once again, McClung gave us another impressive dunk. However, it is something we have seen from him before. Taking everything into account, this dunk cannot be awarded a 50.

Score: 49

Brown: Jaylen Brown’s second dunk was lame, to say the least. The crowd was least receptive to his dunk, which is all the scorers should have needed to hear. All he did was finish a simple dunk off of a lob pass from Tatum while jumping over someone sitting in a chair. He did not deserve to advance to the final round based off of this dunk.

Score: 45

In general, the Dunk Contest this year was very disappointing, as it has often been over the last few seasons. Hopefully, the NBA can strategize ways to encourage stars like Ja Morant to participate next season.