It took me a lot of work, so please read the whole thing, like, flame and comment!
Tier 1: Contenders🏅
The real candidates to go all the way. The top 5 in the World by far.
🥇1. USA 🇺🇲🦅
Projected lineup:
Cade Cunningham, Anthony Edwards, Scottie Barnes, Evan Mobley, Bam Adebayo
It's the only country who's squad I can't guess, and still I'm sure they will be the favourites. I just took a guess with that lineup, so don't come at me, but my point is that in the Qatar World Cup they are going to complete the generational transition that they started in Manila. Squad apart, they got the most powerfull team in the World by far, so the names are going to be great, but they usually choke in this tournament, so you never know. It will be Spoelstra's job to avoid another fumble.
🥈2. France 🇨🇵🥐
Projected lineup:
Sylvain Francisco, Evan Fournier, Bilal Coulibaly, Guerschon Yabusele, Victor Wembanyama.
The depth on this France roster is insane, specially in the center position. Wemby, Gobert, Alex Sarr, Mathias Lessort, Vincent Poirier, Mustapha Fall... almost every national team would like to have the centers they don't even consider calling. No one will want to face them, but after a great performance in the olympics, they will have to deliver far from home.
🥉3. Canada 🇨🇦🫎
Projected lineup:
SGA, Lu Dort, Dillon Brooks, RJ Barrett, Zach Edey
The depth here is crazy too. The only reason Murray is coming off the bench is that he didn't deliver in the olympics, but their guard rotation is stacked with Shai, Dort, Barrett, Brooks, Nembhard, Nickeil, and of course Jamal. Even though I'm missing a bit of punch inside the paint, Edey's 7 feet 4 should be enough against most of the rivals they face. Kelly Ollynyk, Dwight Powell and Trey Lyles should complete a more than decent Center rotation.
Serbia 🇷🇸🃏
Projected lineup:
Vasilije Misic, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Nikola Jovic, Filip Petrusev, Nikola Jokic
Like all the other contenders, this team's strength (other than having Jokic) is depth. Maybe they aren't as deep as other teams, and most of their players are Euroleague rather than NBA, but they've got their star, their leader and basically their everything, surrounded by good shooters like Bogdan or Marko Guduric. And the motivation will be there, since they almost beat USA in the semifinal of the olympics, and were knocked out of the EuroBasket in the round of 16 by an underdog like Finland, and lost to Germany in the last World Cup final... and it goes on and on. So don't sleep on Serbia cause revenge is what they want.
Germany 🇩🇪🏆
Projected lineup:
Dennis Schroder, Andreas Obst, Isaac Bonga, Franz Wagner, Daniel Theis
The reigning champs of the World and Europe know how to put up a fight. Even though their squad isn't as good as others, their chemistry does it for them. Franz is already a star, Mo, Voigtmann, Theimann... are always solid, Bonga is one of the best perimeter defenders in FIBA basketball, Tristan da Silva keeps developing, Obst might as well be the best shooter outside of the NBA, and Theis' pick and roll with Dennis is elite. And then there's Schroder. In the NBA he's like top 150, but when he is wearing a Germany jersey, he becomes a top 5 monster. It wouldn't surprise me if they go back to back.