1. Spain
Filled on all positions, except for the coaching one. I think we got to the end of the problem in one of the WC14 threads regarding the pace of the game and Spanish role in it. Spain will have to change their basics, change the role of some players and there they go, they are a no.1 favourite again. That doesn't mean they can't get challenged by France on their home ground, or that some other teams would be a walk in the park.
2. France
I want to see Noah in the team, as well as Ajinca, together with Parker and Batum of course. They are second most stacked team in europe by now, what makes the difference for Spain are the Gasol bros. yet I've got a feeling Noah could be a pretty good neutraliser there
3. Serbia
A bit below France and Spain due to lacking of that very top class talent both of them have. Absolutely stacked on a bit lower level though, some NT's would kill for a PF as Mačvan, yet they've got at least 20 of those and Sale has a large base to choose from as he prooved in 14'. With teamwork and their "inat" they can surpass more talented teams than their own.
4. Greece
In need of a distinctive perimeter player to be put on pair with the above, sorry to Spanoulis fans, but opponent NT's more or less figured it out how to play against him and my guess is you'd need someone else with the game organisation to make it interesting. Stacked frontcourt and wings though. Only thinking about the SF's Papanikolau, Antetekoumpo, I'd actualy use Papapetrou as much as possible as well... pure envy.
5. Lithuania
2 and a half guards won't cut it over and over again and Lavrinovič brothers are getting old. 1st is a major deficit when playing those top4 teams (and a noticable deficit playing many more) and the 2nd (Lavrinović bros) was the best thing from Lithuania in 14', nevermind both tall stars. Motiejunas is improving in Houston, however both with Valanciunas will have to perform noticably better with their NT than they realisticaly (unlike statisticaly in some instances) did in the past.
6. Croatia
Great individual potential, somewhat underperforming. I'd place them on the same level as Greece for example, if it wasn't for the personality issues an ussualy well informed friend of mine has been claiming some of the Croatian players are having, which imo make for less than an ideal team. As much as that might hurt I think Croatia would be better of switching to the young guns and ignoring some of the old supposed "stars" at the same time... definately isn't likely to happen at their "own" eurobasket though.
7. Slovenia
Limited frontcourt with no new talents anywhere in sight and already pretty much stacked backcourt, without even all those talents coming in the next 4-5 years, not as stable of a team as it could be, accordingly. Begić and Vidmar might do the trick against some teams, but hardly vs. the best ones. We have to stop breeding all those not-a-center midgets dammit!
8. Italy
Hackett/Aradori/Gentile/Galinarri/Bargnani - enough said. Finding the right chemistry (you know me, I'd probably leave Bargnani at home actualy) they're anywhere from the medals to the early elimination if something just doesn't fit. As ussual
9. Russia
Russia improved it's own depth significantly in the last few years and imo will continue to do so untill they'll actually end up with number of players usable in euroleague. One thing that remains will be their defensive orientation. With that in mind, I've seen similary ranked teams suddenly surprising everyone for a semi-finals. Or will there once again be a general confusion regarding everything and everyone with their NT?
10. BiH
Will Nurkić actully play? if he does they're at no.10 if he doesn't, quite a few spots lower than that
11. Turkey
Honestly, I don't think it's worth it this time to send the same old granpa's to the championship, if I were Turkish head coach, I'd go with an experience-youth mix and almost forget about result overall as long as there would be 2-3 new players in the rotation.
12. Germany
Schroeder, Their, Pleiss, Benzing, Tadda, Staiger, Giffey are a good not exactly the youngest, but far from old core that will take a championship or two before becoming quite dangerous imho. I'd throw out some of the older players accordingly. Unless Dirk might come of course.
13. Latvia
Basicaly 13', 11', 09' and 07' have all been the same story over and over again for Latvia. Having a bunch of good teams in the group, loosing some games as expected, than after playing well succumbing by 1 point to some teams and one way or the other, dropping out of the 2nd stage. Preferably that includes playing actuall good bball untill losing to Portugal as in 07'. Their youngsters should take over along with Blums and Strelnieks, since in a few years those young players as Porzigins, Timma, Silins, Bertans, Mareks are easily a top10 (or likely better than that) team quality wise.
14. Georgia
A naturalised US PG as ussual, "Air Georgia", Pachulia, Shengelia, Tsintsadze, Shermadini, Markoishvilli it all depends on weather all 7 of those will appear or only 5 of them. They'll have a short rotation in just about any case, but having 7 of them is actualy exponentialy better than 5 and would make them one of the frontrunners for the 15' eurobasket surprise team
15. Ukraine
Say what you want, but Fratello knows basketball, he is doing an incredible job with incredibly limited team and I expect him to continue to do so. I don't think Ukraine would once again manage to get to places like in the last eurobasket, but they should definately be taken as a serious team.
16. Finland
After the World Championship I was pretty much sure Dettman needs to be replaced as what used to be an interesting game scheme seemed to be falling apart against competitors that weren't even superior to Finns individualy.
17. Israel
After being in top10 for so long, it now seems some other countries have made a step forward that Israel hasn't. They can still assemble a decent team if they choose to, however so does Belgium and Poland.
18. Poland
If they naturalised one euroleague level US guard... well, just saying... if!... it could be a different story.
19. Belgium
Good defensive all-round team. In tournaments like these the basic defensive abilities are the most important substance to start with, exactly as we've seen with Belgium in 13'
20. Czech Rep
Well, Satoransky and Vesely might be able to stage some surprises with some help
21. Macedonia
To me Gečevski and Čekovski were the soul of this team, without them short roster even got shorter and the replacement aren't on the same level any way you look at it.
22.-24 Netherlands, Estonia, Iceland
Apologies, I've never seen any of these 3 play and have no idea about what to expect, except Jon Steffanson tearing it up and hopefully Hafthor Bjornsson taking up basketball again and battle it out with baby Shaq
- it was mostly just a really nice lineup that can basicaly compete with the best. If I try it again, I'd definately go with Belinelli on SG and Datome on SF IF (!!!) the players and the coach would get along and some of those players would realise there is only 1 ball to play with. Something I suspect that was an issue in 2011. Otherwise Italy is the team with a big upside on that list as far as I am concerned as semifinals shouldn't even be some crazy surprise imho.