It's time to stop talking about who won't be at the FIBA World Cup and start talking about who will. Plenty of NBA stars will be on display in the Philippines this summer.
There's no need to lie, there is currently not a single country capable of winning the FIBA World Cup that is sending their best possible roster for the tournament.
That list is also missing Canadian NBA champion Jamal Murray, who announced Thursday that he won't be participating in the FIBA World Cup this summer.
This list is also not including American players, and the United States is essentially sending what some would argue is a tier-three squad for them at this point.
But this doesn't mean high-quality, thrilling basketball won't be on display. Miami Heat forward Nikola Jovic is going to have a lot of offensive freedom for Serbia, we're going to get a proper look at Anthony Edwards leadership credentials which will coincide with Steve Kerr's first big tournament as Team USA head coach.
There's still going to be All-NBA level talent on display too, including two 2022-23 All-NBA First team players.
2023 FIBA World Cup: Luka Doncic is chasing gold medal No. 2
Luka Doncic's 2017 Eurobasket performance is one of the greatest FIBA performances and stories of all time.
Doncic, who made first-team All-NBA last season for the fourth time in his young career, was an appropriately hyped draft prospect at the time. However, he was still unknown to plenty of the basketball world.
Doncic played in Europe, not college basketball, and was coming off his first season where he was a genuine rotation player for Real Madrid. Most American basketball fans had not been able to watch him, and Eurobasket was going to be their first chance to see if the hype was real.
With the extra eyeballs on him, Doncic put on a show.
Alongside then Miami Heat guard Goran Dragic he dazzled viewers everywhere, led Slovenia to their first-ever gold medal, and began what would become a year of winning for the youngster: Real Madrid went on to win the Euroleague and Liga ACB championship that season as well.
Doncic will be looking to grab a second gold medal this summer, but without Dragic or any other NBA teammate for that matter, the road will be incredibly difficult.
2023 FIBA World Cup: Can Shai Gilgeous-Alexander make history?
From Steve Nash to Andrew Wiggins, Canada has managed to always have a marquee name in the basketball spotlight. Unfortunately, it has never turned into anything more than that: a big name.
That might change this summer though. Not only is lead guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander coming off an All-NBA first-team nod, but most of Canada's best are joining him in the Philippines.
They will be without Jamal Murray and Andrew Wiggins, but plenty of NBA talent endures. Dillon Brooks, Kelly Olynyk, Dwight Powell, R.J. Barrett, Lu Dort, Cory Joseph, Nickeill Alexander-Walker, and Oshae Brissett will rock the red-and-white and aid Canada's gold medal pursuit.
They're also positioned well in the bracket, and won't see the United States until the semifinals.
Plenty of challenges could come before then. Their secondary group could easily feature defending champions Spain, France, and Brazil. All three of those teams are very talented. Their quarterfinal match could easily be Germany, Slovenia, or Australia.
One bad game against any of those three and they'll be heading home without a medal.
Gilgeous-Alexander and Canada are the second-best team in this tournament on paper. They control their own destiny in their bid to make history.
2023 FIBA World Cup: How far can Bogdan Bogdanovic take Serbia?
Serbia is a basketball-obsessed country. Darko Milicic aside, the country has turned out some of the greatest to ever play the game: from Dejan Bodiroga, Peja Stojakovic, and Vlade Divac to Milos Teodosic, Bogdan Bogdanovic, and Nikola Jokic.
Basketball is in this country's blood.
However, reigning champion and two-time MVP Jokic won't be playing in this summer's tournament. Neither will other NBA players Vasilije Micic and Aleksej Pokusevski.
Serbia is clearly not at their best when they don't have their best, but they will still have Bogdanovic who can light it up when he gets hot.
Miami Heat forward Nikola Jovic will join Bogdanovic, alongside a smorgasbord of skilled experienced overseas players.
Serbia's got a reasonably clear path as well. They should be able to win their first two groups and likely draw Lithuania in the quarterfinals while being on the opposite side of the United States in the bracket.
Should the stars align, Serbia could win gold without their stars.
2023 FIBA World Cup: Are Franz Wagner and Germany the biggest underdogs of the tournament?
Dirk Nowitzki has been out of the game for some time now, but we are finally starting to see the seeds he planted for German basketball grow.
The Germans will have four NBA players for the FIBA World Cup: Franz Wagner, his brother Mo Wagner, Dennis Schroder, and Daniel Theis.
They also have former Lakers guard Isaac Bonga who played well for Bayern Munich last season and experienced Euroleague players Maodo Lo, Andreas Obst, and Johannes Voigtmann.
The talent is there for them to make a run, but they're going to need someone to lead the charge. Franz Wagner is perfectly poised to do that.
At only 21 years old, Wagner averaged 18.56 points per game last season on 48/36/84 splits. He's a versatile and efficient scorer, and a solid defender. If he goes on a hot streak, Germany absolutely has the surrounding pieces to win this tournament.
It'll be interesting to see if Wagner can rise to the occasion.
2023 FIBA World Cup: Can Karl-Anthony Towns lead the Dominican Republic on a fairytale run?
With so many key players sitting out this summer, there could be an opening for a shock winner of the FIBA World Cup. The worst possible team who could be capable of such a run is the Dominican Republic, led by Karl-Anthony Towns.
Towns is coming off what can best be described as an uncomfortable season with the Minnesota Timberwolves. It's not necessarily his fault. He didn't tell them to trade for Rudy Gobert, make Gobert and then teammate D'Angelo Russell hate each other, or cause the team to be infected with the injury bug all season.
But, this all happened, and the best the Timberwolves were able to muster was a playoff-berth via the play-in tournament and a swift first-round loss to the eventual champions the Denver Nuggets.
Towns did not play well in the series, and playoff struggles are starting to become a theme for his career.
This has led to many forgetting just how good Towns is. Sure, his claim that he's the best shooting big man of all time is audacious but he has made three all-star teams and All-NBA twice in his career. That's not easy.
Towns will be suiting up for the Dominican Republic this summer, for the first time since he was a teenager. This could strangely be the perfect environment for him to just put his head down and hoop, and remind the world how good he is.
Because on his day, he's practically un-guardable, and if he can deliver a string of performances at that level the Dominican Republic might have just enough around him to shock some people.
