MINNEAPOLIS -- Shabazz Muhammad spent some time with fellow UCLA product Zach LaVine at the Target Center earlier this week, acting as both assistant and consultant as the latter prepped for Saturday's NBA Slam Dunk Contest.
"Psht," Muhammad scoffed knowingly Wednesday, "the things that I saw last night, I can't tell.
"I'm telling you, if he's relaxed and does his thing, it's going to be ugly."
So went the latest prediction that LaVine, the 19-year-old with 46-inch hops, is the heavy favorite to wow the judges at the Barclays Center and become the first Timberwolves' dunking king since Isaiah Rider in 1994. After announcing his intentions to participate back in August and spending the first half of his rookie season working on specific sequences for Saturday, LaVine himself has stayed tight-lipped on his game plan, emphasizing secrecy.
"I ain't trying to give nothing away," the Washington state native said with a mischievous grin.
Flair. Personality. Swag. They're things LaVine -- outgoing, confident-bordering-on-cocky and very aware of his public image -- hopes one day define him.
This weekend, he can define them.
After playing in Friday night's Rising Stars Challenge alongside Muhammad and against fellow Wolves Gorgui Dieng and Andrew Wiggins and walking the runway for the NBA's first-ever player fashion show, LaVine will seek to revolutionize All-Star Saturday Night's crowning event that was once must-see TV but has become little more than an extension of the league's bordering-on-gimmicky skills competition. Last year's "team" format drew the ire of most viewers, including LaVine.
"I was looking at it like 'I hope we don't do teams again,' because then it's hard to pick out individual dunkers," said the 6-foot-5, 180-pounder, who first dunked when he was in eighth grade.
Originality becomes more difficult to achieve each year, LaVine said, but he'll seek to win over judges Julius Erving, Walt Frazier, Nate Archibald, Bernard King and Chris Mullin early, perhaps trying his most creative slam first. Whether that's a behind-the-back move from his high school dunk contest days, a windmill from the free-throw line like he threw down at this past summer's Seattle Pro-Am, or some sort of lob finish involving Muhammad won't be revealed till shortly after 7:30 p.m. this Valentine's Day.
"So much stuff has been done before in the dunk contest," LaVine said. "The main thing is to make your dunks, but you want to do something no one has seen before."
Said 2000 Dunk Contest champ and legendary flush artist Vince Carter: "It's like a diver; the degree of difficulty gets you more points."
In the first of two rounds, LaVine and fellow competitors Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Oladipo and Mason Plumlee will have three untimed chances to complete two dunks. The judges will score them on a scale of 6 to 10, and the top two will move on to the final, head-to-head round and get three tries at two more dunks again.
LaVine's studied film of the competition. He calls Antetokounmpo "damn Stretch Armstrong," knows Oladipo likes to rise off two feet, and Plumlee will have a solid home backing in Brooklyn.
In recent years, dunkers have leapt over inanimate objects (Blake Griffin, Kia sedan, 2011) or people (Jeremy Evans, Kevin Hart, 2012). But LaVine hopes to resurrect the old-school aerial exploits of Carter, Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins, with whom LaVine talked shop when the Hawks were in town to play Minnesota earlier this week.
LaVine's "not a big guy on props," he said -- unless they're named Shabazz.
"I'm OK being a prop," Muhammad said. "I can actually do a couple things for him and help him out."
Carter said he used to study for the dunk contest "like it was a final exam." Like LaVine, Carter's judges panel consistent of what he calls "dunk connoisseurs" whose interests he tried to placate.
"When I want to look at it, I want to see different things -- style, tricks," the former Raptors star, now with the Grizzlies, said. "Because anybody can go out in a game and dunk the ball from a long ways, but it's the difference between dunking the ball in a game and in a dunk contest. I think a lot of people don't understand that. It's all about the tricks that you can pull out and the degree of difficulty."
LaVine's got plenty of maneuvers. Wolves coach Flip Saunders was almost dismissive when asked about his 13th overall draft selection from 2014 and his chances -- "I've seen he everything. . . . I know what he can do."
Muhammad, Wiggins and Dieng all have predicted victory based off their pre- and post-observations of LaVine this year. Even Carter has taken time to review the youngster's YouTube reels for some informal critiquing."Not bad," Carter smiled. "Actually, he's pretty good. I think he has the ability."
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