We’re set for a week without real NBA games, but 2024-25 All-Star Weekend is here and that gives us an opportunity to place some bets. All of the action will take place at the Chase Center in San Francisco, California, and the fun starts on February 15th. While All-Star Saturday Night has lost some steam in recent years — mostly because of a lack of excitement surrounding the Dunk Contest — I still find it to be a fun evening. With that in mind, I’ll dish out some picks for the Skills Challenge, Dunk Contest and 3-Point Shootout below. Also, while I don’t plan on going too in-depth on the topic, I’ll share some quick thoughts on the new All-Star Game format. The new mini-tournament will take place on Sunday, February 16th.
2025 Kia Skills Challenge Odds & Predictions
All odds from DraftKings Sportsbook and accurate at time of publish. Shop around for the best prices!
- Team Spurs (+165) – Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama
- Team Cavs (+210) – Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley
- Team Warriors (+300) – Moses Moody and Draymond Green
- Team Rooks (+425) – Zaccharie Risacher and Alexandre Sarr
If you’re putting anything down on the Skills Challenge, I really hope it’s a small amount. This is one of the most random events there is, with ball-handling, passing and shooting all being required. However, we have seen some interesting winners before, and we have also seen some different formats. In fact, I still haven’t seen anything official on how this year’s event will look. But based on looking at the pairings, I can’t help but think Team Cavs is the way to go here.
The Spurs duo is definitely incredibly skilled, but Paul isn’t nearly as fast as Mitchell. Also, I’m not sure Wembanyama is as quick with the ball in his hands as Mobley. That should matter at some point in the event, and I feel good enough about the shooting of Cleveland’s All-Stars. Mitchell is the best shooter of the four and Mobley has been good enough as a catch-and-shoot player to believe he can pass whatever test is thrown at him.
2025 AT&T Slam Dunk Contest Odds & Prediction
All odds from DraftKings Sportsbook and accurate at time of publish. Shop around for the best prices!
- Mac McClung (-190)
- Stephon Castle (+550)
- Matas Buzelis (+650)
- Andre Jackson Jr. (+650)
Look, beating McClung is going to be incredibly difficult. The man is barely even in the NBA. He’s in this contest solely because he can jump out of the gym and bring some excitement to a dying event. Last year, McClung put on an absolute show on his way to winning the contest. And he’s deservedly the odds-on favorite to win it again. However, I’m not personally willing to back a huge favorite in an event like this.
I actually did some YouTube digging to find some previous Dunk Contest performances from the other three contestants. I couldn’t find much for Jackson. I know he’s an explosive athlete and a good in-game dunker, but that style of dunking is very different than a showcase like this. So, I’m not looking to back him. However, Buzelis is worth a small bet.
One of the dunk contests that shows up for Castle and Buzelis is the 2023 McDonald’s High School Dunk Contest. The video is short and rapidly shows each dunker getting their stuff in. Well, while Castle was completely unimpressive, two of Buzelis’ three dunks were awesome. In fact, the one he opened the contest with (at the 1:20 mark in the video) would bring the house down if he pulls it off at the Chase Center. I also think his second dunk would win some folks over, especially considering longer forwards like him normally don’t do well in these settings.
2025 Starry 3-Point Contest Odds & Prediction
All odds from DraftKings Sportsbook and accurate at time of publish. Shop around for the best prices!
- Damian Lillard (+350)
- Tyler Herro (+500)
- Darius Garland (+500)
- Buddy Hield (+500)
- Norman Powell (+550)
- Jalen Brunson (+750)
- Cameron Johnson (+750)
- Cade Cunningham (10-1)
Lillard is looking to win this event for the third year in a row, so it’s not surprising to see him as the favorite. But I’m having a hard time going away from Hield here. The Bahamian won the 3-Point Contest back in 2020. That’s big. While there are plenty of good shooters in this field, there’s difference between making catch-and-shoot 3s in a game and knocking them down off the rack. Knowing that Hield has done it before is huge. Hield should also benefit from this year’s event taking place at the Chase Center. While Hield has struggled at home this season (31.9%), he won’t have to worry about being surrounded by Golden State’s miserable spacing. He should also feel as good about his surroundings as everybody. Hield will also get a nice little lift from the crowd cheering him on, and he’s a shooter that can run extremely hot when he gets it going.
It’s also not a terrible idea to put a little something on Johnson. While Johnson has never competed in the 3-Point Contest before, he should be fueled by being snubbed back in 2022. And overall, as a big forward that shoots an effortless ball, he should really be able to do some damage. A good argument can be made that Johnson has the cleanest mechanics of anybody in this year’s field.
2025 NBA All-Star Game Odds & Thoughts
With the new All-Star Game format, we’re going to see a four-team tournament with teams coached by Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Candace Parker. The first three names on that list have the real NBA All-Stars on their rosters, and Parker will be coaching the Rising Stars. These are the teams:
Shaq’s OGs: LeBron James, Steph Curry, Jayson Tatum, Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, James Harden, Jaylen Brown and Kyrie Irving (in for Anthony Davis)
Chuck’s Global Stars: Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Victor Wembanyama, Pascal Siakam, Alperen Sengun, Karl-Anthony Towns and Trae Young (in for Giannis Antetokounmpo)
Kenny’s Young Stars: Anthony Edwards, Jalen Brunson, Jaren Jackson Jr., Cade Cunningham, Darius Garland, Tyler Herro, Evan Mobley and Jalen Williams
Candace’s Rising Stars: Parker will be coaching the winner of the four-team Rising Stars event, which will be a lot like this new All-Star Championship
As of right now, DraftKings Sportsbook has Team Chuck laying 3.5 against Team Kenny in the opening round, and Team Shaq is a 6.5-point favorite against Team Candace. The total for that first game is 74.5 and the total for the second game is 72.5. If those numbers sound odd to you, that’s probably because the winner of these games will be the first teams to 40 points. They’re trying to make this a competitive, pick-up style.
These are the odds for each team to win the entire event:
- Team Shaq (+135)
- Team Chuck (+190)
- Team Kenny (+340)
- Team Candace (+850)
As VSiN CEO Bill Adee mentioned in The VSiN Daily newsletter, I won’t actually have any action on this portion of the weekend. There was apparently a meeting between high-ranking league officials and players about taking this event seriously. However, I’m not exactly sure I trust that to happen. If anything, I’d probably lean towards Team Kenny because I think a group of young players is more likely to play with some edge. I’m not sure Anthony Edwards and Jalen Brunson can turn off their competitiveness.
However, I will note that I don’t hate the idea of backing Curry to win MVP. As previously mentioned, the entire weekend is taking place at the Chase Center. So, Curry will be very comfortable with the environment, the fans will be buzzing whenever he has the ball and there will probably be a lot of people that want to see him win at home if it ends up being close between him and somebody else.
