After 5 years that did not take place, the European Championship will open this Thursday, and there is a chance that the final picture will be like in 2017, with Slovenia at the top of the podium.
Who are the other candidates for the title, who may reach the podium, who will say goodbye to the air of the peaks and who will try to surprise.
And also: where is the Israeli national team, which wants to return to the top eight after almost 20 years.
Here are the quality levels for the championship.
first rank
Slovenia -
in the summer that they have all the guns led by Luka Doncic, this is a team that is hard to stop.
The winning of the European Championship in 2017 and the Olympics last summer will testify to this.
Next to the star of the Dallas Mavericks you can find Kalman Perflic, Zoran Dragic, Vladko Cchanchar, and the naturalized Mike Toby.
If the team was not strong enough, then Goran Dragic, who hesitated at first, decided in the end to participate in the championship and puts one of the strongest teams in history, with the possibility of a second win in a row.
Luka Doncic.
Super star, photo: Getty Images
Serbia -
one of the empires of European basketball in the past, is no longer a success story in recent years with failures in the World Championship and failure to participate in the Olympics.
On the other hand, we have seen the strengths of Serbia in the preparation, and in the lineup it is fielding - it is one of the candidates that will fight for the title.
Of course they have a superstar like Nikola Jokic and the best player in the Euroleague in the last two years, Vasilija Micic.
The big question that will accompany coach Svetislav Psic in the tournament: will the decision to give up Milos Teodosic be 3S or 3S.
will wake up
A lot on the shoulders, photo: Getty Images
France -
for a decade the team has been standing on the podium in almost every large enterprise.
At the World Championship in 2019: a bronze medal and last summer at the Olympics: a silver medal, and this year too, Vincent Kola's players will receive another medal.
One of the secrets of success is the endless depth of French basketball.
Nicolas Batum will be missing this time, but Gershon Yabosla, from the stars of Real Madrid is in the squad.
Nando de Colo is gone, but Eli Okubo after a big Euroleague season will be there.
But above all, this is of course the team of Rudy Gober and Evan Fournier.
Gershon Yabusla (right), photo: AFP
Greece -
If Slovenia wins, it will be Luka Doncic.
If Greece does it, everything will be on the shoulders of Giannis Antetokounmpo - the superstar who wants to bring first receipts in the national team.
But if all due respect to the giant star, one of the biggest reinforcements is in the coach's position.
After several unsuccessful attempts including Rick Pitino, the most senior Greek coach and one of the best in Europe - Dimitris Itoudis - is on the line.
Besides the big star, Greece fielded a strong and experienced squad with Nick Kalathis, Kostas Sloukas, Dimitris Papanikolaou, and Tyler Dorsey.
The big problem is the big plague of injuries, and until now the team still doesn't know what the final squad that will go to the championship will be.
Yanis Enantkompo, photo: AFP
second tier
Lithuania -
like Serbia, it has not impressed in recent years, and last summer it did not win a qualifying tournament it hosted at home to qualify for the Olympics.
The thing is, that this summer with the addition of the NBA players, Jonas Valenciunas and Domantas Sabonis, it looks impressive and finished the preparation without a loss, including two victories over Spain.
Jonas Valenchionas, photo: Getty Images
Turkey -
In the last two years, Ergin Atman won the Euroleague twice with Anadolu Efes.
Now he returns to the Turkish national team to try and bring it back to the European top.
Her NBA trio: Chedi Osman, Furkan Kurkamaz and Alfern Shengun, led by the naturalized Shane Larkin, must reach the top stages.
The problem is that the players of the second wave are not at the level of the leading group.
Maybe a medal, but definitely not a win.
Argin Atman, photo: AFP
Spain -
you won't win, maybe you won't be on the podium.
The world champion in shift changes - the problem is that the next generation is not at the level of the golden generation that for years pulled the team to great achievements or retired or was not called to the squad or is on the last gas fumes.
In addition, there are quite a few injuries and absences, with Ricky Rubio standing out above all of them.
Things got to the point where a big hole was created at the center position, and Spain, contrary to the way it has taken throughout history, went for a player and brought Lorenzo Brown from Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Spain's golden generation, photo: Getty Images
third tier
From here will come the teams that are able to set foot in at least the first eight.
At the head of this group is
Germany
.
The German national team is a different story after Dennis Schroeder comes to play in its ranks and he will not be the only NBA player in the squad.
Its strength could be learned from the 19 difference over Slovenia in the last preparation game before the tournament.
Italy
could have gone high, but suffered a major blow with Danilo Gallinari's injury and the question of how they will cope.
Nano Ginzburg's Czech Republic
has an advantage because it hosts the early home.
The point is that everything will rise and fall on the question of whether Thomas Saturnski will be eligible for the championship.
At this point, the chances of that happening are not great.
Nano Ginzburg, photo: AFP
A big question mark in the ranking is
Croatia
.
There is potential: NBA players Dario Saric, Bojan Bogdanovic and Ivica Zubac with naturalized Jaylin Smith is a force.
On the other hand, this is a team that suffered many disappointments, and did not even qualify for the second stage of the World Championship qualifiers.
Finland
, which the Israeli team met last week in the World Championship qualifiers, and we will meet again on Friday at the opening of the championship, is a team that has already played five championships in a row and has a good connection, experienced players and a big superstar like Lauri Markkanen.
In addition, the Finns are the first of all European teams to secure a place in the World Championship.
Lauri Markkanen, photo: AFP
And where is Israel?
Based on the early estimates and the talent, it looks like we belong in that group.
The expectations were for an achievement that we haven't done in a long time.
The question is which team we will get.
If we look like in the World Championship qualifying window, which preceded the championship, then we are really not there.
We were a promise, now we are a big question mark.
were we wrong
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