Schroder, Theis and Kleber headline Germany's 16-man World Cup squad

HAGEN (Germany) - Germany will be looking to make a splash at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in China with their young and exciting NBA-based trio of Dennis Schroder, Daniel Theis and Maximilian Kleber.

The three have been named in the 16-man squad for the tournament, which tips off in just under a month. Germany's First Round Games in Group G will be against France (September 1), Dominican Republic (September 3) and Jordan (September 5).

Germany's 16-man list for FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019
Ismet Akpinar	Danilo Barthel	Robin Benzing	Isaac Bonga
Niels Giffey	Karim Jallow	Maximilian Kleber	Maodo Lo
Andreas Obst	Joshiko Saibou	Dennis Schroder	Daniel Theis
Johannes Thiemann	Johannes Voigtmann	Moritz Wagner	Paul Zipser

Schroder (Oklahoma City), Theis (Boston) and Kleber (Dallas) figure to play big minutes for coach Henrik Rodl.  Schroder and Theis combined for one of Germany's top plays at FIBA EuroBasket 2017 in their Round of 16 triumph over France.

Kleber has yet to feature for his country in a big competition but did show signs in the European Qualifiers that he can be a special player for Germany.

He caught an alley-oop pass from Schroder and scored to force overtime in Germany's late come-from-behind triumph over Israel.

Other key men in China for Germany are sure to be Niels Giffey, Robin Benzing, Danilo Barthel, Johannes Voigtmann and Paul Zipser.

"With Dennis Schroder leading the way, we will have a team that will play very fast and must since he's one of the quickest players in the world. So you have to accordingly put players around him who are fast," Rodl said. "Our bigs are extremely mobile. With our bigs Theis, Barthel, Voigtmann and Kleber we can compare with any other federation, and they fit very well with Dennis. And then we need guys who can shoot from the outside. And I think we have guys for that as well."

It could be a difficult process, however, of settling on a final 12-man roster since many of those named in the 16-man squad contributed in the European Qualifiers.

Also in the squad are a couple of young and inexperienced NBA talents in Isaac Bongo and Moritz Wagner, who are both on the books of the Washington Wizards.

"I also wanted to have a couple of younger players like Wagner, (Karim) Jallow and Bonga, to see how far along they are and if they are ready to strengthen a roster. And you can only see that if you have them there with you on site," the coach said.

Rodl could end up including each. He himself played a vital part for Germany in their title triumph at FIBA EuroBasket 1993,  a tournament staged in Germany immediately after he graduated from the University of North Carolina.

Germany will launch their World Cup preparations on Monday, August 5, in Trier, where they will go up against Sweden in their first  warm-up game on Sunday, August 11. Rodl's men will then travel to Hamburg to continue their training and also to host the VTG Supercup, which has Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary taking part.

Germany will fly to Japan on August 21 and face Tunisia (August 23) and Japan (August 24) in Saitama, where the knockout round for the World Cup staged 13 years ago was held.

The national side then moves to Shenzhen, the city where they will play in the First Round.

FIBA