FIBA World Cup 2019: 5 non-Team USA teams with a chance to win gold

Serbia

Outside of Team USA, the Serbians boast the largest collection of NBA talent in the FIBA World Cup field, led by All-NBA big man Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets.

Serbia also has motivation, having taken the silver medal — losing to USA Basketball both times — in each of the last two major international competitions, the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain and the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Serbia has only been competing internationally since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and also took the silver medal in Atlanta.

The Serbians also finished second in the 2017 EuroBasket.

Besides Jokic, Serbia also has veteran Nemanja Bjelica and Bogdan Bogdanovic from the Sacramento Kings and Dallas Mavericks behemoth Boban Marjanovic.

Miroslav Raduljica, the Serbian captain, also spent time in the NBA and Serbia has three players under 25. Besides Jokic, 24, there are two other 24-year-olds in center Nikola Milutinov and guard Marko Guduric.

Serbia is likely to get out of Group D along with Italy and opens with Angola on Saturday. The Philippines are also in the group.

In the second round, however, Serbia and Spain are likely to tangle for the top seed coming out of the second-round Group J competition.

With only Russia and Argentina posing any sort of threat out of the groups that will make up Group I, that could set Serbia and Spain on a potential collision course for a gold medal — provided one of them (or someone else) gets Team USA out of the way.