When Vince Carter retired at the end of the 2019-20 season, it brought an end to the career of arguably the greatest in-game dunker of all-time.
Miles Bridges is doing his best to fill that void.
The Charlotte Hornets forward has always been a high-flier, but he's dunking with greater frequency and more ferocity this season than we've ever seen before from him. According to NBA.com, he's already up to 71 dunks through 61 games. Not only is that tied for his most dunks in a single season, it's the 19th-most dunks in the league on the season, trailing a group that's filled with mostly centres.
Bridges has already had a couple of throwdowns that are Dunk of the Year worthy, as well as a number of other jaw-droppers.
With that in mind, here are five dunks from him this season that made us question gravity.
5. Making it up as he goes
I'm convinced Bridges didn't really have a plan when he first went airborne on this dunk:
First of all, he is looking directly at LaMelo Ball before he takes flight.
Second, he only gets a brief look at the rim.
Third, he looks back after he lands, almost as though he can't even believe what he just did.
I think that's what they call skywalking.
4. Clear the runway
Bridges isn't someone you want to give a runway to. Because if he gets any sort of momentum heading towards the rim...
Goodness.
Now feels like a good time to remind you that Bridges is a southpaw. While he clearly favors dunking with his right hand — four of the five dunks on this list are right-handers — there's something special about off-handed dunks, especially ones this powerful.
3. Watch your head!
Similar to the one above, only this time Bridges dunks on a 6-foot-11 centre in Nikola Vucevic, not around a 6-foot-3 guard in CJ McCollum.
Oh, and he takes off from just inside the dotted line.
2. Two hands for safety
Vucevic isn't much of a shot blocker, but Chris Boucher is.
The Toronto Raptors big man is averaging 1.9 blocks per game this season, putting him behind only Myles Turner (3.4), Rudy Gobert (2.8), Clint Capela (2.1) and Nerlens Noel (2.1) for most in the league.
Whether it's at the rim or on the 3-point line, scoring on Boucher isn't an easy task, but Bridges got the best of him on this one:
In Boucher's defence, he probably wasn't expecting Bridges to hang in the air as long as he did and for him to bring the ball back as far as he did.
That was Bridges' best dunk of the season until he posterized one of the few players ahead of Boucher on the shot blocking leaderboards.
1. Vinsanity
Somewhere, Alonzo Mourning woke up in a cold sweat.
We're all DeVonte' Graham.
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