Stars Jokic, Marjanovic, Bogdanovic and Teodosic headline 18-man Serbia squad

BELGRADE (Serbia) - National team coach Aleksandar Djordjevic now has a reduced list of 18 players to consider for the country's FIBA Basketball World Cup campaign in China.

Nikola Jokic, Boban Marjanovic, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Nemanja Bjelica, Miroslav Raduljica and Milos Teodosic are in the latest squad that has been announced by the Serbian Basketball Federation.

A couple of other less heralded players that played an important role for Serbia in the European Qualifiers, Aleksa Avramovic and Dejan Todorovic, are included.

Avramovic famously hit a late 3-pointer at Austria that helped Serbia avoid an upset in the First Round.

There is no shortage of post players with Jokic, Marjanovic, Raduljica and Ognjen Kuzmic on the 18-man list.

Big contributors in the past that are notably absent are Nikola Kalinic and Nemanja Nedovic.

Serbia will compete in Group D with Italy, Angola and the Philippines. A top-two finish would put them in Second Round Group J and they would meet the top two sides from a Group C that is made up of Spain, Tunisia, Puerto Rico and Iran.

The countries that finish first and second in Group J will advance to the Quarter-Finals.

Djordjevic's men will tip off their training camp on July 21 at the Kopaonik mountain before moving on to Cacak, Zrenjanin and Belgrade for friendly games. They will then travel to Lithuania and Greece for additional preparation games, before flying to China on August 20 to have three final warm-up friendlies against Italy, New Zealand and France.

FIBA