The Trail Blazers likely won’t have an All-Stars, but they will have two representatives at next month’s festivities in San Francisco. The NBA on Tuesday announced the player pool for the Rising Stars event. Scoot Henderson was one of the 11 second-year players selected, and Bryce McGowens, who is on a two-way contract, was one the the seven G League players selected.
Henderson will be participating in Rising Stars for the fourth time, a record that will almost certainly never be broken. He did it twice before he was in the NBA, in 2022 and 2023, as a member of G League Ignite, and was also selected last year, during his rookie season with the Blazers.
Somewhat surprisingly given that he’s started for most of the season and has cemented himself as one of the Blazers’ most important players, Toumani Camara was not one of the sophomores selected. There will be at least one injury replacement in the sophomore pool since Brandon Miller, who was selected, is out for the season, so Camara could get that spot.
Donovan Clingan was also left out of the pool of 10 rookies, but that’s more understandable given that he’s missed time with injuries during the year. It’s possible he’s named as an injury replacement given that one of the rookies selected, Jared McCain, is also out for the season.
The 28 players will be divided into four teams and play a mini-tournament against each other on Friday, Feb. 14, during the opening night of All-Star Weekend. Under the NBA’s new format, the team that wins the Rising Stars tournament will also participate in a similar tournament on Sunday along with three teams of NBA All-Stars.
Here is the full player pool for Rising Stars:
NBA Rookies:
Bub Carrington (Washington Wizards)
Stephon Castle (San Antonio Spurs)
Tristan da Silva (Orlando Magic)
Zach Edey (Memphis Grizzlies)
Dalton Knecht (Los Angeles Lakers)
Jared McCain (Philadelphia 76ers)
Yves Missi (New Orleans Pelicans)
Zaccharie Risacher (Atlanta Hawks)
Alex Sarr (Washington Wizards)
Jaylen Wells (Memphis Grizzlies)
NBA Sophomores:
Bilal Coulibaly (Washington Wizards)
Gradey Dick (Toronto Raptors)
Keyonte George (Utah Jazz)
Scoot Henderson (Portland Trail Blazers)
Trayce Jackson-Davis (Golden State Warriors)
Jaime Jaquez Jr. (Miami Heat)
Dereck Lively II (Dallas Mavericks)
Brandon Miller (Charlotte Hornets)
Amen Thompson (Houston Rockets)
Cason Wallace (Oklahoma City Thunder)
Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio Spurs)
G League Players:
JD Davison (Maine Celtics)
Mac McClung (Osceola Magic)
Bryce McGowens (Rip City Remix)
Leonard Miller (Iowa Wolves)
Dink Pate (Mexico City Capitanes)
Reed Sheppard (Rio Grande Valley Vipers)
Pat Spencer (Santa Cruz Warriors)
Also, a programming note: I will be at All-Star Weekend in San Francisco as well as on the Blazers’ last road trip before the break in Minnesota and Denver. This is the only trip I’m taking during the season because that kind of travel is expensive. Becoming a paid subscriber makes it easier for me to do more of it and bring you more coverage throughout the year.
