Offenses covet dunks more than any shot in basketball, and for good reason. Dunks create highly efficient offenses and often require lots of space to materialize, whether in transition or due to defensive breakdowns. Therefore, players who can create dunks in half-court settings often bring incredible value.
Many offensive stars generated lots of thunderous slams in the half-court before the NBA— Zion Williamson, Anthony Edwards, Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James, Joel Embiid, Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell, to name a few. I hand-tracked each 2025 NBA Draft prospect’s half-court dunks and counted how many they created:
generating self-created half court dunks signals positive advantage creation and explosive twitch and is a hallmark of many stars. i hand-tracked dunks from most 2025 NBA Draft prospects, here are the results
if they’re not on the list, they have zero self created HC dunks pic.twitter.com/OACadzY0Hl
— ben pfeifer (@bjpf_) May 7, 2025
I define “self-created” as any dunk resulting from a dribble in space (not counting gather/power dribbles under the hoop), often resulting from closeout attacking opportunities, isolations, pick-and-rolls and post-ups. There’s some inherent subjectivity involved, but I attempted to cast a wide net.
Players with more minutes and touches might have inflated dunk numbers compared to players who didn’t play as much and not all self-created dunks are created equally. Still, tracking half-court dunk creation acts as a rough proxy for advantage creation, burst and vertical athleticism.
Let’s dive into some more specific prospect takeaways we can glean from the self-created half-court dunk leaderboard.
Nique Clifford
The 2025 Draft’s self-created half-court dunk leader might come as a bit of a surprise to some. Scouts often discuss Clifford as a versatile, well-rounded complementary wing (which has plenty of truth), but his athleticism deserves more attention. For a 6’6 wing, Clifford’s excellent burst and explosiveness help him create dunks against set defenses.
enjoy a few of my favorite nique clifford self-create half court dunks from the season, who’s athleticism is quite underrated
has some of the more impressive vertical + horizontal twitch of any 2025 prospect on the wing https://t.co/K7Mlc43HAF pic.twitter.com/SIn0MPNKz9
— ben pfeifer (@bjpf_) May 7, 2025
Colorado State tasked Clifford with plenty of primary creation responsibility, which he likely won’t see at the next level. He attempted a solid 30% of his half-court shots at the basket this season and posted a solid 37.3% free-throw rate. In a scaled-back role, Clifford’s explosiveness and advantage creation should let him thrive as a closeout attacker against tilted defenses.
Derik Queen
Scouting reports often fail to mention Derik Queen’s elite athletic tools when discussing is upside. That’s puzzling, as Queen dominated NCAA opponents as a driver and interior scorer largely due to athletic advantages. Few big men attack the rim with Queen’s speed, power, agility and flexibility, leading to plenty of self-generated half-court dunks and impressive highlight plays.
jaw hit the floor at derik queen locking his defender in jail before exploding for the dunk. idk idk he might just be special pic.twitter.com/wIFzIqPK0a
— ben pfeifer (@bjpf_) December 6, 2024
Beyond his gaudy self-created dunk numbers, Queen grades out positively in most statistics scouts cite as athletic indicators. He’s an elite rebounder (24.5% defensive rebounding rate, 9% offensive rebounding rate) and his positive foul-drawing (54.6% free-throw rate) and steal rate (2%) signal positive athletic tools. Queen’s unique body type and play style shouldn’t let us discount his athletic potential.
Ryan Kalkbrenner
I can’t say I expected Kalkbrenner to sit near the top of the dunk creation leaderboards, as most towering centers dunk the ball on lobs, putbacks and cuts to the rim. Kalkbrenner, who led the NCAA in dunks this season (107), showcased some newfound offensive skill this season, including this nasty inverted pick-and-roll, which led to an easy flush:
correct! kalkbrenner scored 3 times as the PNR ballhandler this season and this was the one dunk generated there. cool stuff https://t.co/xtSq0QKPpw pic.twitter.com/7QqinlOYWx
— ben pfeifer (@bjpf_) May 7, 2025
Kalkbrenner’s ability to create dunks on drives and post-ups could signal some latent offensive upside that scouts have overlooked to this point. If Kalkbrenner continues to improve as a shooter, his impact as a seven-foot closeout-creator could resemble valuable stretch bigs like Myles Turner and Brook Lopez.
Adou Thiero
Though Thiero recorded a solid four self-created half-court dunks, it’s important to remember he missed nine games due to injury. Thiero was one of five players at 6’6 or shorter to record 40 dunks this season and played the fewest games of the group. He’s a blatantly exceptional athlete with arguably the best speed-to-power generation of any player in the draft.
adou thiero is a clear contender for the most explosive player in the 2025 draft, evidenced by high dunk creation despite missing lots of time this season.
his elite speed -> power generation reminds me of elite edge rushers, he’s unbelievably twitchy https://t.co/K7Mlc44fqd pic.twitter.com/IZh7KHkFTg
— ben pfeifer (@bjpf_) May 7, 2025
Thiero’s weak outside shooting and limited playmaking could cap his offensive ceiling, especially in the postseason, where teams punish poor shooters. He might be a special enough athlete to overcome those limitations, even with minor shotmaking improvement.
