Domantas Sabonis Named to BBVA Rising Stars Game at All-Star Weekend
Today the NBA announced the rookie and sophomore players who’ll participate in the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge Game. Joining the team is OKC Thunder rookie Domantas Sabonis.
Continuing the recent trend the NBA selected rookie and sophomore players based on where they are from. Once more the teams will feature rookies and sophomores playing together either for the American squad or the World squad.
World Team:
- Domantas Sabonis – Oklahoma City Thunder (Lithuania)
- Joel Embiid – Philadelphia 76ers (Cameroon)
- Dario Saric – Philadelphia 76ers (Croatia)
- Kristaps Porzingis – New York Knicks (Latvia)
- Nikola Jokic – Denver Nuggets (Serbia)
- Jamal Murray – Denver Nuggets (Canada)
- Emmanuel Mudiay – Denver Nuggets (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
- Trey Lyles – Utah Jazz (Canada)
- Danté Exum Utah Jazz (Australia)
- Buddy Hield – New Orleans Pelicans (Bahamas)
Domantas Sabonis has started in all 45 games for the OKC Thunder registering 6.0 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists averages.
Related: Where does Westbrook not starting in the ASG rank among historical snubs?
USA Team:
- Karl-Anthony Towns – Minnesota Timberwolves
- Devin Booker – Phoenix Suns
- Marquese Chriss – Phoenix Suns
- Malcolm Brogdon – Milwaukee Bucks
- Brandon Ingram – Los Angeles Lakers
- D’Angelo Russell – Los Angeles Lakers
- Frank Kaminsky – Charlotte Hornets
- Jahlil Okafor – Philadelphia 76ers
- Jonathon Simmons – San Antonio Spurs
- Myles Turner – Indiana Pacers.
Omissions:
Noticeably omissions from the teams are both Raptors rookies Pascal Siakam (Cameroon) and Jakob Poeltl (Austria). Both players would have ended up on the World team if selected. Siakam is an odd omission given he has ranked on pundits Top Ten lists since the start of the season. Perhaps his recent regression in minutes played into the decision.
Conversely, 3 other players who have seen an uptick in minutes are also missing from the squad: Dejounte Murray and two Nets: Isaiah Whitehead and Caris LeVert. Both Murray and LeVert have only recently experienced additional playing time which may have hurt their bid to make the squads.
Selection Process:
More from Thunderous Intentions
- Stealing one player from every Southwest Division team for the OKC Thunder
- Should the OKC Thunder chase after a disgruntled hometown hero?
- 3 OKC Thunder players who can step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence
- Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
- Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder
The teams were selected by assistant coaches who each filled out ballots. On the ballot each staff selected 4 backcourt and frontcourt players and two additional players for each team. The other caveat mandated was three rookies and sophomores had to be selected for each team.
Coaching Staffs:
Coaches for the game will come from the staffs coaching the big game on Sunday. The successful coaches come from the team with the best record on February 5, 2016 in each Conference. No team can coach in back to back years, therefore the Cavaliers and Spurs cannot repeat.
Since the Golden State Warriors can’t be caught by that date that means one of the coaches will be an Assistant Coach from Steve Kerr’s staff. In the East that decision is still open with teams still jockeying near the top of the ladder.
Potential candidates are the Toronto Raptors (currently second), who hold a game and a half lead over the Boston Celtics in third. There is an outside chance the Hawks (2 games back of Raptors) or Wizards (3 games back) could also get the nod. With both Toronto or Boston on 4 and 3 game losing streaks respectively this is an outside chance of this occurring.
The Game:
This format of World versus the USA is the format being utilized for the third consecutive year. Once again the game will occur on Friday night (February 17th) at the Smoothie King Center with the tip at 9 PM Eastern Standard Time (8PM CT).
Sponsoring the event once again is the official bank of the NBA: BBVA Compass. The game will be televised on TNT Overtime and NBA Canada with ESPN Radio also broadcasting.