The Current NBA Players Who Have Never Dunked in a Game

It’s the NBA, right? I mean everyone can dunk. Can’t they? Well, you’d be surprised that in a league of roughly 500 players with an average height of 6-feet-7-inches there are 11 players who have played at least 500 minutes in their NBA career and have never slammed a ball home in a game. 

Consider the 18-year All-Star career of Steve Nash. He was an eight-time All-Star and a two-time NBA MVP. He is among the NBA career leaders in a number of categories including assists. He led the NBA in assists in five different seasons. 

Nash was also 6-3, but he holds the distinction of being the best NBA player that never dunked in a game. That’s not because he didn’t try. Nash did attempt a dunk in a 2007 game, but he missed. He is not alone. 

Here is a look at the 11 players currently in the NBA who have never dunked in a game.

Trae Young (Hawks)

Young is probably the most recognizable name on this list. He is a dribble-drive master who currently leads the NBA in assists with 11.5 per game. Young also leads Atlanta in scoring averaging 24.0 points per game. Young can do just about anything on the basketball court, but there is one thing he has never done.

This is Young’s seventh season in the NBA. He has yet to make a dunk in a game. Now, Young is just 6-1, but there have been other NBA players 6-1 or even smaller who have dunked in a game. Young has NBA career averages of 25.5 points and 9.5 assists, so he’s probably okay with leaving the dunking to his Hawks teammates.

Fred VanVleet (Rockets)

VanVleet is in his ninth season as an NBA player. He’s played in 490 career regular season games. Add in a play-in tournament game and 52 playoff games and VanVleet has played a bunch. He’s averaged 15.0 points and 5.7 assists in the regular season over his career. 

Like Young, he has yet to dunk in an NBA game. It’s not that he can’t dunk, but there aren’t many opportunities for the 6-0 VanVleet to get a shot at a wide open rim. While he hasn’t dunked in a game, there are reportedly witnesses of a pickup game back when VanVleet was at Wichita State who saw him throw down a one-handed slam. 

Matt Ryan (Knicks)

Ryan is not a household name and you’d have to dig deep into the Knicks program to find him. He signed a two-way contract with the Knicks and is currently on the roster. Ryan has played in 19 games this season and it’s not like he hasn’t been around. This is his fifth year in the league.

The Knicks are his fifth team in five years and Ryan has more than enough minutes to qualify for this unique distinction. It’s also very interesting because Ryan is 6-6. 

Ryan is best known as a shooter. That’s why he is in the NBA and on the Knicks roster currently. Ryan acknowledges that he has never dunked in a game and he might never get the chance. Ryan has told reporters that guys who are shooters need to be on the floor for a long time in order to have the opportunity to dunk. Ryan has played 3.5 minutes per game for the Knicks this season. 

Jose Alvarado (Pelicans)

Alvarado has been a backup point guard for the Pelicans for three-plus seasons now. He’s only started 11 games for New Orleans, but Alvarado has played in 171. This season, he is averaging a career-high 10.0 points and 4.5 assists per game. 

Alvarado was listed in high school at 5-11. At Georgia Tech and with the Pelicans, he is listed at 6-0. He has never dunked in an NBA game. 

TJ McConnell (Pacers)

McConnell was a 6-1 scoring machine in high school, averaging 34.2 points per game. That landed him a scholarship to Duquesne before he transferred to Arizona. Now, McConnell is in his 10th NBA season and sixth with the Indiana Pacers.

He is a backup guard who logs a little over 18 minutes a game. His scoring average is right around 10 points a game and he adds 4.5 assists. McConnell has played 10 years in the league. He’s played a ton of games, but he has never dunked in a game. For those that think he can’t, watch this clip of McConnell dunking at an Indiana practice.

Patty Mills

If you didn’t know, Mills is actually from Australia. He’s bounced around the league and has played for seven teams now. He moved from Utah to the LA Clippers at this year’s trade deadline. He’s been in the league since 2009 and Mills has never moved above the rim in an attempt to dunk the basketball. Sixteen NBA seasons and zero dunks for the 6-2 Mills.

The Tallest Player That Hasn’t Dunked

TyTy Washington is 6-3 and is currently playing on a two-way contract with the Phoenix Suns. He has played 42 NBA games with three different teams, yet Washington is still among those NBA players with at least 500 minutes and zero dunks.

We can work our way up the height ladder and go to 6-4 AJ Green of the Milwaukee Bucks. Next is 6-5 Ty Jerome who won a national championship at Virginia and now plays for the Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland Cavaliers. Neither of the two have an NBA dunk.

Jalen Wilson is 6-6 and in his second season with the Nets. He has zero dunks even though he averaged over 15 minutes a game as a rookie and 27.1 minutes a game this year. However, Wilson is not the tallest player in the NBA right now who has never dunked in a game.

That title belongs to Orlando Magic guard Caleb Houstan. He measures 6-8 and has played 14 minutes a game over two-plus seasons with the Magic. It’s not like he hasn’t tried. Houstan missed a dunk in a game against Cleveland as a rookie. You can check it out here.