Basketball World Cup started in China on August 31. VTB League is represented by 19 players of national teams which is the second largest number among European leagues. Here are the heroes!
Stefan Jovic, Khimki
Team: Serbia
New Khimki player is supposed to play a key role in his national team. With Milos Teodosic injured, Jovic will become the starting point guard. Serbian list of scorers includes top players like Jokic, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Milutinov, Bjelica. One of the main Stefan’s goals is to assist.
Johannes Voigtmann, CSKA
Team: Germany
Playoffs is what we can expect from German roster. At the group stage they will face France, Dominican Republic and Jordan. Team star is Dennis Schroder of Oklahoma, main assisters are Daniel Theis of Boston and Maxi Kleber from Dallas. Versatile center Voigtmann with his 10 points in recent friendly against Australia (74:64) should help his team in the paint. Moreover, Johannes is quite a sniper which will be a challenge for their opponents defense.
Daniel Hackett, CSKA
Team: Italy
There are a lot of famous players in Italian national basketball team, but there are not enough good players from the bench. That means that the main burden will come upon starting five. Hackett will help Gallinari, Belinelli and Datome to lead Italian team. No doubt that Daniel is a skilled guard – throughout last season he had been causing troubles to CSKA opponents defense driving to the basket and and shooting threes. Hackett will definitely take the ball in his hands in a clutch moment. He is the best candidate to guard opponent’s best player.
Vangelis Mantzaris, UNICS
Team: Greece
Mantzaris was taken out of the national team roster in August, but then got back because of Ioannis Athinaiou’s injury. Greek national team has impressive roster, in which current NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo will play with lots of European top-players, such as Printezis, Papanikolaou and Bourousis. Greek backcourt isn’t worse – Calathes and Sloukas will pass the ball. Probably, Vangelis will play only a few minutes per game, but will do his best to help his team from the arc.
Andrew Albicy, Zenit
Team: France
One of the best Eurocup point guards is going to the World cup with Nando de Colo and Frank Ntilikina. Probably, coaching staff will give the position of starting guard to CSKA ex-guard or NBA player, but Zenit newcommer will play his minutes. Albicy is able to play in isolation and participate in offence as a deadeye shooter, it is hard to miss his versatility.
Mantas Kalnietis, Lokomotiv Kuban
Team: Lithuania
Lithuania is a dark horse on every event like Eurobasket or World Cup. All eyes on duo Valanciunas-Sabonis. These two will be a challenge for every front-court in China. However, success is made by the whole team, and experience makes a difference. Kalnietis is a perfect candidate for point guard. Loko player has been a member of Lithuanian national team since 2006 having all majors in his record including World Cups and the Olympics.
Mateusz Ponitka, Zenit
Team: Poland
Poland participates in World cup for the first time since 1967 and it is already quite an achievement. Mateusz Ponitka took a huge part in this success. During qualification Zenit forward played in all 12 games, averaging 13.4 points and 4.7 rebounds. With Maciej Lampe absent, Ponitka and A.J. Slaughter have to lead their team on tounrament in China.
Mikhail Sokolovsky, Zielona Gora
Team: Poland
Poland is definitely a dark horse on China World cup. Apart from mentioned Polish players Sokolovsky surely can be a leader. Mikhail is a good defender, and on the other glass he can shoot threes and drive to the basket. In his prime he can join Polish leaders duo and make it big three.
Adam Khrichanyuk, Zielona Gora
Team: Poland
Khrichanyuk is a powerful forward, who will make lots of dirty work during China World cup without attracting unnecessary attention. Adam will be quite useful on the boards, and he is the one to rely on in clutch moments because of his stamina and temper.
Russian national team
There are 10 league players in Russian national team. Russians lost few leaders – Alexey Shved, Dmitriy Kulagin, Timofey Mozgov and Joel Bolomboy won’t help their team in China. On the other side, Mikhail Kulagin returned to the team roster after injury. So, the majority of Russian national team are CSKA players – Nikita Kurbanov, Andrei Vorontsevich and Semen Antonov. Khimki and Lokomotiv sent 2 players on the World cup each – Evgenyi Valiev, Sergey Karasev (Khimki) and Vitalyi Fridzon and Vladimir Ivlev (Lokomotiv-kuban). Furthemore, Andrei Zubkov from Zenit and Evgeniy Baburin from Nizhniy Novgorod will play in China.
