Iman Shumpert will be in the Dunk Contest

Breaking news at this hour! We've got another Knick participant (possibly a couple?) to All-Star Weekend at the end of the month. From ESPN's Marc Stein:

Just going up at ESPN online: Dunk contest field is Budinger, Paul George, Shumpert and Derrick Williams. And, yes, Jeremy Lin involved, too

Lin won't be dunking at All-Star Weekend but has been invited to "assist" Shumpert along lines of Baron lobbing to Blake in 2011 contest

A few things:

1. That seems like a pretty awful list of dunkers, but it's more about how seriously folks take it than how talented they are at doing slam jams, so you never know.

2. You knew they'd find a way to rope Lin into All-Star Weekend. That "Shooting Stars" nonsense still sounds like a possibility, too.

3. The dirty secret here, as any Knick fan can tell you, is that Shumpert has been pretty awful at doing dunks (and at the rim in general) this season. In fact, Shump's converted just 10 of 15 dunks he's attempted (a number I was saving for a post later today). There's no doubt that Iman is incredibly athletic and great at leaping, but the guy's been waaaaay over-ambitious and excessively fancy at the rim so far this year, and...wait, that sounds exactly like an ideal dunk contest participant. As Chairman Meow pointed out, Shump showed us plenty of ridiculous things this summer.

Anyway, congratulations to Shump (and to Jeremy, I guess). For all of his struggles at the rim, Iman does strike me as the kind of guy who'll have fun with the Dunk Contest and try something entertaining. Looking forward to watching him do cool slam dunk shots. Feel free to share your ideas for Shump (including ones that involve Jeremy) in the comments.