The 2025 edition of the Slam Dunk Contest at NBA All-Star Weekend will be pretty light on the “star” portion of the equation. As has been the case for much of the last decade, the league has not been able to secure any of the league’s top players for the contest. Instead, they are hoping that a young field can deliver a surprisingly fun contest, as they’ve tapped the reigning two-time champ, Mac McClung, Spurs rookie Stephon Castle, Bucks second-year wing Andre Jackson Jr., and Bulls rookie Matas Buzelis for this year’s contest.

It is, on paper, not a contest field that really gets fans all that excited. McClung has been fantastic in the contest the last two years, but he’s a G League player who is something of a Dunk Contest ringer at this point. The other three all have plenty of bounce and could be very fun, but are not household names. The lack of big names in the Dunk Contest has been an issue for the NBA for about a decade, but the flip side of that is the Dunk Contest can push a young player into being a star with a legendary performance.

Zach LaVine is maybe the best example of that, as he became a two-time Dunk Contest champ years before he was an All-Star. The 2015 and 2016 winner of the contest now is offering some mentorship to his young teammate, Buzelis, on the contest, and teased on TikTok that he’s still got it and might have to make a triumphant return at some point.

Getting LaVine to do another Dunk Contest would be huge for the NBA, but what they really need is one of these young players to use the contest as a trampoline to being a bigger name the way LaVine did (and Aaron Gordon, even though he lost twice in gutting fashion). What would really tip the scales back in favor of the Dunk Contest is if the league can get one of the big-name youngsters to do it early in their career. That used to be when you got star names in the contest, but the league hasn’t been able to get players like Zion Williamson or Anthony Edwards to do it early in their careers before they become All-Stars themselves — see: Blake Griffin, Vince Carter, Kobe Bryant.

Perhaps this year Castle, Jackson, or Buzelis will be able to put their name on the map via the Dunk Contest. At the very least, Buzelis has an excellent mentor to lean on for advice and maybe some dunk ideas in LaVine.