{"id":261066,"date":"2026-01-28T02:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T02:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/261066\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T02:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T02:33:09","slug":"nba-rising-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/261066\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Rising Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Standout rookies Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel were the top two picks in the 2026 Castrol Rising Stars draft.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0NBA All-Star 2026: Complete coverage<\/a><\/p>\n

The 2026 Castrol Rising Stars were drafted to three teams Tuesday with Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg, Charlotte Hornets rookie Kon Knueppel and Philadelphia 76ers rookie VJ Edgecombe selected in the first round by honorary coaches Carmelo Anthony, Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter.<\/p>\n

The three teams of top NBA rookies and sophomores will compete against a G League squad in\u00a0a mini-tournament Friday, Feb. 13 (9 ET, Peacock) at the LA Clippers\u2019 Intuit Dome as part of NBA All-Star 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Team Melo<\/p>\n

Cooper Flagg (Dallas Mavericks)
\nReed Sheppard (Houston Rockets)
\nStephon Castle (San Antonio Spurs)
\nDylan Harper (San Antonio Spurs)
\nJeremiah Fears (New Orleans Pelicans)
\nDonovan Clingan (Portland Trail Blazers)
\nCollin Murray-Boyles (Toronto Raptors)<\/p>\n

Team T-Mac<\/p>\n

Kon Knueppel (Charlotte Hornets)
\nKel\u2019el Ware (Miami Heat)
\nTre Johnson (Washington Wizards)
\nAlex Sarr (Washington Wizards)
\nAjay Mitchell (Oklahoma City Thunder)
\nJaylon Tyson (Cleveland Cavaliers)
\nCam Spencer (Memphis Grizzlies)<\/p>\n

Team Vince<\/p>\n

VJ Edgecombe (Philadelphia 76ers)
\nDerik Queen (New Orleans Pelicans)
\nKyshawn George (Washington Wizards)
\nMatas Buzelis (Chicago Bulls)
\nEgor D\u0451min (Brooklyn Nets)
\nCedric Coward (Memphis Grizzlies)
\nJaylen Wells (Memphis Grizzlies)<\/p>\n

Full draft results<\/p>\n

Cooper Flagg (Team Melo)
\nKon Knueppel (Team T-Mac)
\nVJ Edgecombe (Team Vince)
\nDerik Queen (Team Vince)
\nKel\u2019el Ware (Team T-Mac)
\nReed Sheppard (Team Melo)
\nStephon Castle (Team Melo)
\nTre Johnson (Team T-Mac)
\nKyshawn George (Team Vince)
\nMatas Buzelis (Team Vince)
\nAlex Sarr (Team T-Mac)
\nDylan Harper (Team Melo)
\nJeremiah Fears (Team Melo)
\nAjay Mitchell (Team T-Mac)
\nEgor D\u0451min (Team Vince)
\nCedric Coward (Team Vince)
\nJaylon Tyson (Team T-Mac)
\nDonovan Clingan (Team Melo)
\nCollin Murray-Boyles (Team Melo)
\nCam Spencer (Team T-Mac)
\nJaylen Wells (Team Vince)<\/p>\n

Former NBA player and current NBC\/Peacock analyst Austin Rivers will coach the G League Rising Stars team.<\/p>\n

Team Austin<\/p>\n

Sean East II (Salt Lake City Stars)
\nRon Harper Jr. (Maine Celtics)
\nDavid Jones Garcia (Austin Spurs)
\nYanic Konan Niederh\u00e4user (San Diego Clippers)
\nAlijah Martin (Raptors 905)
\nTristen Newton (Rio Grande Valley Vipers)
\nYang Hansen (Rip City Remix)<\/p>\n

In the Castrol Rising Stars mini-tournament, Team A will face Team B in the first semifinal (Game 1), and Team C will play Team D in the second semifinal (Game 2). The winner of Game 1 will meet the winner of Game 2 in the championship (Game 3).<\/p>\n

For each semifinal game, the winner will be the first team to reach or surpass 40 points. For the championship game, the winner will be the first team to reach or surpass 25 points.<\/p>\n

NBA assistant coaches determined the pool of 21 NBA players, with each team submitting one ballot. Voters ranked 10 rookies and 10 sophomores, with more points assigned to higher placements. The top 10 rookies and top 10 sophomores by point total earned spots. The final spot was awarded to the higher-scoring player among the 11th-ranked finishers in each class. The pool includes one more sophomore than rookie based on total points received.<\/p>\n

An assistant coach from one of the NBA All-Star Game coaching staffs will be named head coach of each of the four Castrol Rising Stars teams, working alongside the honorary coaches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Standout rookies Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel were the top two picks in the 2026 Castrol Rising Stars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,13367,105],"class_list":["post-261066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-rising-stars","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}