By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The Serbian national team will fight against South Sudan, China, and Puerto Rico in the Group B of the 2023 FIBA World Cup, and head coach Svetislav Pesic talked about the NBA players joining the team during the summer.
Nikola Jokic and Nikola Jovic are still active in the playoffs with Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat, while Bogdan Bogdanovic and Aleksej Pokusevski finished the season.
“Pokusevski is back, he will train until the beginning of July, we are waiting to see what will be the situation with Jovic. We talked with Nikola Jokić. We’ll see how far he will go in the NBA playoffs, Nikola is happy in the national team, he wants to play, but we have to wait a bit. We are also waiting for Bogdanovic, who is recovering from a tough season,” Pesic said to Sport Klub.
The head coach of the Serbian national team also confirmed that Bayern Munich captain Vladimir Lucic won’t be with the team due to a hand injury.
“As far as the composition of Serbia is concerned, there will be no major changes compared to the team that played at the European Championship. Much will depend on the preparations, the health status. Avramovic suffered an injury, but he hopes to be able to play at Mundobasket, Lucic will not be part of the team, and there is no need to talk about how much he means to us,” Pesic added.
He also talked about the possibility of a naturalized player entering the Serbian roster.
“At this moment it will not. If I invite Kevin Punter, then I will also have to invite someone from Zvezda so that there would be no conflict,” Pesić joked and continued. “I don’t see reinforcements for the national team in foreign players at this moment, I hope we won’t need foreign players in the team, but I don’t rule out the possibility of that happening in the following period,” Pesic concluded.