MIAMI (United States) \u2013 The Dominican Republic\u2019s national team is going through one of its best moments, thanks to the wealth of talent on its roster. Several of its players are shining in Europe, while others are working to establish themselves in the NBA. Although they won\u2019t have their full roster available for this tournament, they will count on several high-level contributors. It\u2019s time for that international talent to start translating into results for the national squad.<\/p>\n
The Dominican team competed at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup, finishing in 14th place. They are currently ranked 18th in the FIBA World Ranking and sixth in the Americas.<\/p>\n
In the AmeriCup Qualifiers, the team was placed in Group C, the toughest group. Only two spots were available, as the host nation, Nicaragua, already had a guaranteed place in the tournament. The Dominicans posted a 4-2 record and ended up in a three-way tie with Canada and Mexico. Based on tiebreaker criteria, they secured second place in the group and earned their ticket to the AmeriCup.<\/p>\n
Tournament history<\/p>\n
This will be the country\u2019s 15th AmeriCup appearance and the seventh consecutive one. They have only earned one medal, which was a bronze in 2011. They finished in eighth place in the most recent edition of the tournament in 2022.<\/p>\n
Players to watch<\/p>\n
Guards Andr\u00e9s Feliz y Jean Montero will be in charge of orchestrating the offense. Feliz is a threat on both ends of the court. Coming off the bench for Real Madrid, he averaged 7.3 points in the Spanish league, and during the AmeriCup Qualifiers, he posted averages of 15.0 points and 6.3 rebounds in three games. Montero is a nightmare for opposing defenses, and with Valencia in Spain\u2019s top division, he averaged 15.9 points and 4.4 assists. In the Qualifiers, he contributed 14.7 points over three appearances.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Feliz is a steady hand at the point.<\/p>\n
Other names on the preliminary roster include shooting guard\/small forward David Jones-Garc\u00eda, one of the top performers in the most recent Las Vegas Summer League (21.6 points, 53 percent from three, and 6.2 rebounds), who signed a two-way contract with the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA. \u00c1ngel Delgado, Joel Soriano and Eloy Vargas will be the key interior players, while Jassel P\u00e9rez is ready to take on a major role in the rotation.<\/p>\n
Head coach: N\u00e9stor \u201cChe\u201d Garc\u00eda<\/p>\n
The Argentine coach is one of the most experienced in the region. He already knows what it\u2019s like to win the AmeriCup (in 2015 with Venezuela) and is well-acquainted with Caribbean basketball culture. After leading Venezuela to the 2016 Olympic Games, he took the reins of the Dominican squad for the 2019 and 2023 World Cups, advancing past the Group Phase in both tournaments. Now, he\u2019ll be aiming for another medal at the continental level.<\/p>\n
Outlook<\/p>\n
Although the team is missing several key players, the pieces they do have could be enough to earn them a second medal in their history. One of their main strengths is the familiarity and continuity between the players and the coaching staff, who have worked together for several years. They\u2019re also placed in Group C, arguably the most favorable group in the tournament.<\/p>\n
In that group, they\u2019ll face Colombia, Argentina, and Nicaragua. On paper, they are expected to battle Argentina for the top spot.<\/p>\n
Last 10 FIBA events<\/p>\n
Year<\/p>\n
Event<\/p>\n
Rank<\/p>\n
2024<\/p>\n
FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament<\/p>\n
3rd<\/p>\n
2023<\/p>\n
FIBA Basketball World Cup<\/p>\n
14th<\/p>\n
2022<\/p>\n
FIBA AmeriCup<\/p>\n
8th<\/p>\n
2019<\/p>\n
FIBA Basketball World Cup<\/p>\n
16th<\/p>\n
2017<\/p>\n
FIBA AmeriCup<\/p>\n
7th<\/p>\n
2016<\/p>\n
Centrobasket Championship<\/p>\n
3rd<\/p>\n
2015<\/p>\n
FIBA AmeriCup<\/p>\n
6th<\/p>\n
2014<\/p>\n
FIBA Basketball World Cup<\/p>\n
13th<\/p>\n
2014<\/p>\n
Centrobasket Championship<\/p>\n
3rd<\/p>\n
2013<\/p>\n
FIBA AmeriCup<\/p>\n
4th<\/p>\n
FIBA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI (United States) \u2013 The Dominican Republic\u2019s national team is going through one of its best moments, thanks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-62940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}