Justise Winslow and Tyler Johnson both expressed interest in participating in the Rising Stars Challenge at All-Star weekend in Toronto.

Winslow, a rookie, will need to wait a year; Johnson, an NBA sophomore, is out of opportunities.

Winslow appears to have had two things working against him.

First, as strong a defender as he is, his raw offensive statistics aren't especially strong.

Second, the NBA's switch to a U.S. versus the World concept last season, rather than rookies vs. sophomores, crowded the field, and put some players on the World team -- like Utah's Raul Neto -- that don't seem to be at Winslow's level.

The NBA's assistant coaching staffs do the selections, they picked only three rookies for the U.S. team, to go with seven second-year players. Those three rookies were the three top picks in the most recent draft: Minnesota's Karl-Anthony Towns, the Lakers' D"Angelo Russell and the 76ers' Jahlil Okafor. All have more impressive offensive than Winslow, though you can argue he's made more of an impact that Russell and Okafor, in particular, on a team that's actually competing.

The seven second-year players: Boston's Marcus Smart, Orlando's Elfrid Payton, Milwaukee's Jabari Parker, Philadelphia's Nerlens Noel (who is actually three years removed from being drafted), Utah's Rodney Hood, and the Lakers' Jordan Clarkson.

Again, Miami currently has a better record than all but Boston, the only other team that is over .500.