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The Rising Stars Challenge in its varying forms over the years has always been a must-see piece of NBA All-Star Weekend, matching the top rookies and the match sophomores in a game for bragging rights. This year the NBA is mixing it up a bit.

The league will still choose the top nine players from each of the two classes, but instead of Rookies versus Sophomores the league will allow TNT personalities to choose the teams regardless of class.

With the starters for the 2012 NBA All-Star Game announced Thursday evening and the reserves soon to follow, it’s time to take a stab at who the top nine players should be for each class.

The Rookies

We could just take the top nine players from the weekly Rookie Watch, but that’s not exactly the best idea because in this week’s rankings five of them were point guards. So who makes the cut?

Ricky Rubio, Minnesota Timberwolves