Pau Gasol took Magic rookie forward Paolo Banchero with the No. 1 pick while Deron Williams selected Magic second-year forward Franz Wagner with the No. 2 pick in the Rising Stars draft. Former NBA stars Gasol, Williams, Joakim Noah and Jason Terry are serving as honorary coaches for the Rising Stars tournament, which will be played Feb. 17 at Vivint Arena as part of...
The Orlando Magic’s “Rising Stars” will be on opposing teams during All-Star Weekend after being taken with the first two picks in Tuesday’s draft.
Pau Gasol took Magic rookie forward Paolo Banchero with the No. 1 pick while Deron Williams selected Magic second-year forward Franz Wagner with the No. 2 pick in the Rising Stars draft.
Former NBA stars Gasol, Williams, Joakim Noah and Jason Terry are serving as honorary coaches for the Rising Stars tournament, which will be played Feb. 17 at Vivint Arena as part of All-Star Weekend in Salt Lake City.
“I have to go with a player who’s having a great year,” Gasol said before drafting Banchero, the No. 1 pick in last year’s NBA draft. “Extremely talented. To me, if you look at this list, is probably the first guy that’s going to make the All-Star Game — probably in a year or two.”
Banchero’s averaging a team-high 20.3 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 33.7 minutes (47 games). He leads all rookies in scoring and is second among rookies and second-year players, only behind Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green (21.6 points). Banchero was the back-to-back Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for games played in December and January.
“I’m going to go with Paolo’s teammate — Franz Wagner, who’s having a heck of a season himself,” Williams said before drafting him. “He’s playing terrific this year. Plays for my guy coach [Jamahl] Mosley down in Orlando. Very clutch kid. We’ll definitely need that.”
Wagner, the No. 8 pick in the 2021 draft, is averaging 19.5 points (48.6% shooting, 36.9% on 3s), 4.1 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 33.2 minutes (53 games). He’s third in scoring among rookies and second-year players. Wagner was named to the 2021-22 All-Rookie first team and played in the Rising Stars tournament last year.
The Rising Stars format, which was altered last season, features four seven-player teams competing in a mini-tournament consisting of three games (two semifinal games and one championship contest) instead of a single exhibition as in previous years.
Each game will be played to a target score. The two semifinals — Games 1 and 2 — will be played until a team reaches 40 points while Game 3 will be played until a team reaches 25 points to determine the tournament champion.
The pool of 28 players for Rising Stars consists of 11 rookies, 10 second-year NBA players and seven G League players.
The 21 NBA players were drafted onto three seven-player teams by Gasol, Noah and Williams. The G League players will be on the fourth team and coached by Terry.
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Khobi Price at khprice@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on Twitter at @khobi_price.
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