This week, the Wednesday Dunk Battle goes high concept — what, scientifically speaking, constitutes the “best slam dunk?” Does it lessen the dunk’s greatness if it’s performed in practice? What if it involves a pillar of fire and a trampoline? What if you aren’t a human being and can dunk? How do they relate to one another?

Your job, as a loyal With Leather reader, is to view the following dunks and help decide which slam dunk slammed most dunkingly. It’s important that you participate and vote in the poll at the bottom, for without you, we may never know the perfect dunk equation.

This week’s dunks:

1. The Los Angeles Clippers block/pass/dunk machine leads to a massive left-handed effort from Blake Griffin.
2. LeBron James continues to nerf the entire 2013 Slam Dunk Contest by going between his legs in practice.
3. Kenneth Faried goes up Dwight Howard’s helpless back to catch an alley-oop.
4. A ridiculous man’s fire dunk, as seen yesterday on With Leather
5. Eddie the sea otter throws it down, as seen in Danger’s post from last Wednesday

Please view, and vote in the poll.

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Seeing as David Stern and the NBA prefer putting superstar-led teams on ESPN and TNT, and AT&T U-Verse doesn’t have NBA TV available for po’ folk like me, I don’t get to watch Javale McGee’s crazy ass play as much as I’d like to. So I have to depend on Twitter and the great Denver bloggers and writers that I follow to fill me in on the crazy things he says or does each week. It also helps that McGee has his own Twitter account, and his Goofus ways inspire a new meme practically every other week (see above).

But every once in a while, McGee stops sipping the crazy juice long enough to show a flash of brilliance that could be put in the shoe box of evidence that he uses to proclaim his status as one of the best centers in the NBA. Well, at least he’s paid like he believes that.

Last night was one of those brilliant moments, as McGee was on the receiving end of a ¾-court pass from Andre Miller for an alley-oop jam. Of course, the Nuggets lost to the Brooklyn Nets, 119-108, but it’s still nice that McGee flashed a little potential.

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So, this happened:

The Denver Nuggets prevailed over the OKC Thunder in a hard-fought, overtime thriller. The biggest beef of the game, however, was between Russell Westbrook and Nuggets mascot Rocky. Russ trolled the fans in Denver by goaltending two of his halfcourt attempts. Per the Denver Post: “Fans now have a villain,’ Ty Lawson said.

I’m not sure whose side I’m on. Regular readers know that I’m a sports mascot enthusiast, so I usually take their side, and my first reaction to Goaltending A Lion-Gate was the headline. After reading about it, the half-court shots were an attempt to win Q’Doba queso for the arena … if Rocky makes any of those shots, everyone gets a coupon for a bowl of cheese.

So do I side with the anthropomorphic lion because goaltending is an assy move, or do I side with Westbrook for preventing a few thousand people from downing a styrofoam bowl of hot cheese they wouldn’t have wanted or eaten unless it was free?

You make the call. Video is below.

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One day I’ll get that headline to work.

Last Wednesday, With Leather dunk scientists decided that Cleveland’s Anderson Varejao faking out Dwight Howard and dunking on the rest of the Actual Lakers was the most slam dunkingest slam dunk of the week. While we struggle to properly conjugate “slam dunk,” we’ve gathered a new crop of HOT DUNKZ and ask you, the reader, to decide which one is the most slam and/or dunk.

Dunk clips and a handy selection box for your dunk of choice are included after the jump. Please take your time with these and consider which is best, because the Internet desperately needs science.

This week’s choices are:

1. Blake Griffin catching an alley-oop off the glass, because every dunk battle needs Blake Griffin in it doing something ridiculous
2. Gerald Henderson throwing down a monster dunk on Dwight Howard, because every dunk battle needs somebody making Dwight Howard look bad.
3. Danilo Gallinari alley-ooping the ball to himself against the Memphis Grizzlies.
4. Cal State San Marcos’ Daniel Redmond catching a half court alley-oop

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Yahoo!’s Adrian Wojnarowski Tweeted yesterday that a four-way blockbuster trade that would send Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers was imminent, and it appears that it’s done. According to Woj, as of this morning the deal is in place and just needs NBA approval, which the teams will most likely receive during a conference call this afternoon. As the smoke clears and the dust settles, this is how the trade plays out:

Lakers get: Dwight Howard, Earl Clark, and Chris Duhon

Philadelphia 76ers get: Andrew Bynum and Jason Richardson

Denver Nuggets get: Andre Iguodala

Orlando Magic get: Arron Afflalo, Al Harrington, Nikola Vucevic, Moe Harkless, 3 first round picks, and 1 second round pick.

(Some people with “sources” say that other players are involved, and it is actually 4 first rounders that suck and maybe 2 second rounders, but who knows yet? Who cares? Is anyone even paying attention? Hello, Mrs. Pommelhorse?)

MOST SHOCKING UPDATE EVER: The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that the deal is not done and there may be complications. I do not believe this because the Sentinel is never right.

Of course that has led to a chorus of “How could Orlando do that?” and “Orlando got screwed” and “Orlando took the worst offer out there” and that was expected. Short of a LeBron James for Howard straight-up swap, there was no deal that Orlando would receive that wouldn’t be met with cries of outrage from both fans and the media. That’s just how the NBA works these days.

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Creepy floating heads edition.

When I’m wrong, I’m the first to admit that I was wrong. And boy did the NBA’s defending champs make me look like a fool. Last week, I predicted that no team would be swept from the NBA Playoffs last week, and to make matters worse, I boasted that it was a sucker’s prediction because only one team had the possibility of sweeping its opponent through Saturday, and that was the Oklahoma City Thunder. But I thought for sure that Dirk Nowitzki and Co. would show some scrap and claw back for one win. Wrong.

Oh well, I never said that the prediction machine was a perfect beast, but it’s close to perfect, because I was right about everything else, including the winner of the Kentucky Derby*. And that builds enough confidence for me to move forward with another round of brilliant sports predictions.

*I did not pick the winner of the Kentucky Derby in last week’s post, but I was totally like, “Oh yeah, bros, I pick I’ll Have Another.”

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