There will be two Utah ties in the NBA Rising Stars event during the league’s All-Star Weekend next month.
On Monday, it was announced that former BYU standout Egor Demin now of the Brooklyn Nets was named to the Rookie group, while Salt Lake City Stars guard Sean East II will be on the NBA G League team (no Utah ties are in the Sophomore group).
The most notable omission was Jazz rookie Ace Bailey in the Rookie group. He is the only player who was taken in the top nine of the 2025 NBA Draft to not be in the Rookie group.
Demin, the eighth overall pick in the 2025 draft, has been fantastic for a struggling Nets team this season. He has appeared in 39 of Brooklyn’s 44 games entering Monday night, with 32 starts.
He is averaging 10.2 points, 3.4 assists and 3 rebounds per game. Perhaps most impressively, he is shooting an excellent 39.6% from behind the 3-point line after that was a knock on him for several years and he only shot 27.3% from distance in his lone season at BYU.
In 14 games for the Stars, East is averaging 17.4 points, 5.9 assists and 2.5 rebounds.
Bailey, the fifth pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, has played in 39 of the Jazz’s 46 games entering Monday night, with 28 starts. He is averaging 10.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists.