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Mason Plumlee ... getting up and throwing down

By Net Income
Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

Mason Plumlee threw down six dunks on Saturday, bringing his season total to 100 and putting him in 12th place on the CBS Sports Dunk-o-Meter. 40 (!) more dunks than the next best dunking rookie, Giannis Antetokounmpo.  More importantly it put him one ahead of his older brother, Miles, in the Plumlee family competition. Miles had one dunk in the Suns win over the Thunder and so now, they're tied.

As anyone who's attended or watched or listened to a Nets game, Plumlee's dunks are often spectacular, coming off pick-and-rolls where he uses his speed and athleticism to get in the right place at the right time. He's specialized in the reverse two-hander.

Plumlee should be a great dunker. His pre-draft combine numbers could have predicted it. He's 7'0.5" tall in shoes and although he has a "short" wingspan at 6'11", a little less than Shaun Livingston, his max vertical is 36" and his reach is nine feet.  How high is his max vertical, comparatively?  It's a half inch higher than what Blake Griffin was measured at in 2009 and between the two Terrence's -- Ross and Jones. And it's six inches higher than DeAndre Jordan recorded. (Jordan does have a pterodactyl wingspan of 7'6".)  In other words, he can get up.

But it's more than height and athleticism. Plumlee has that killer instinct. Cody Zeller, another seven-footer in last year's draft, has a max vertical of 37.5" but you don't see him on the list of top 50 dunkers.

Plumlee's dunking in fact has become a Nets weapon. He dunks every 11.1 minutes he's on the court. Compare that to other big-name dunkers. DeAndre Jordan, the NBA's leader with 234, dunks every 11.8 minutes. For Dwight Howard, it's every 12.1. For Andre Drummond, 14.2 and for Griffin, it's once every 16.8. Miles? 18.5.

We'd all like to see Plumlee hit a shot outside the paint. He hasn't yet this year although watching him in warm-ups he seems to have a decent stroke and showed up a sky hook in the summer league.  In the interim, whenever he serves one up, we'll just say, "Enjoy!"

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