New Rising Stars format may have Pistons playing each other

The Detroit Pistons are one of three teams that will have three players in the NBA Rising Stars challenge.

Rookie Cade Cunningham and sophomores Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart will all be involved and their inclusion is a good sign for the Pistons, who are trying to restore the franchise around young talent.

To be honest, this is not an All-Star event that I normally watch, as the US vs. the World format had gotten stale and the game itself was nothing more than a scrimmage with a lot of crazy lobs and not much competition.

But the NBA has changed the format this year and it should be a lot more interesting and we may even see the Detroit Pistons playing each other.

New Rising Stars format could have Pistons vs. Pistons

In the past, the game was just two teams running up and down the floor, dunking the ball and scoring obscene amounts of points.

It wasn’t all that fun to watch unless you are into failed alley-oop attempts, but this year should be different.

There will now be four seven-man teams, each with a legendary coach (Isiah Thomas will be one of them) who will choose a roster.

The four teams will play a single-elimination tournament of sorts, as two teams will advance after the first game and play for the Rising Stars crown.

The first set of games will be played to 25 and the Final will be played to 50, so these will be more like pickup games in that regard, but hopefully the change in format will get the players to take it a little more seriously and actually compete, so in that regard it should be less like a pickup game than in years past.

It would be interesting if all three of the Pistons ended up on different teams, as we could see Saddiq Bey trying to defend Cade Cunningham or Isaiah Stewart working on Bey in the post.

Of course, Pistons’ legend Isiah Thomas could just choose all three of the Pistons for his squad, in which case we’ll at least know who to cheer for.

The new NBA Rising Stars challenge format has my attention and this will be the first time in a long time that I actually tune in to watch the games.