{"id":95875,"date":"2025-08-25T12:52:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T12:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/95875\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T12:52:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T12:52:08","slug":"eurobasket-2025-primer-luka-jokic-and-the-biggest-nba-story-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/95875\/","title":{"rendered":"EuroBasket 2025 Primer: Luka, Jokic and the Biggest NBA Story Lines"},"content":{"rendered":"

NBA<\/a>NBA<\/a>The NBA couldn\u2019t be deader, but EuroBasket 2025 is here to save us. Get ready for Lean Luka, a Jokic-led juggernaut, and some damn good basketball.\"\"Getty Images\/Ringer illustration\"\"<\/a>By Danny Chau<\/a>Aug. 25, 12:14 pm UTC \u2022 14 min<\/p>\n

EuroBasket 2025 is upon us, and it couldn\u2019t have come at a better time. Last summer\u2019s Olympic Games presented a glimpse of the past, present, and future of basketball, and in many ways, we\u2019re still basking in the afterglow of that tournament<\/a> and what it all means. Now there are bragging rights and international standing at stake in a globalized ecosystem that no longer sees Team USA as a tier above. There are clear favorites this year, but if the last EuroBasket was any indication, this won\u2019t be a paint-by-numbers competition.<\/p>\n

EuroBasket 2022 was one of the strangest, most enthralling international basketball tournaments in recent memory. In a field that featured Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo\u2014arguably the two best players in the world\u2014in their prime, as well as a 23-year-old Luka Doncic, life chose to imitate art. Spain\u2019s Juancho Hernangomez, mere months after embodying the legend of Bo Cruz in the Adam Sandler vehicle Hustle<\/a>, had the game of his life in the final; his brother, Willy, was named the MVP of the entire tournament after Spain went 8-1 across the competition despite having only the sixth-best odds of winning. It was proof of concept for EuroBasket in its first stint as a once-every-four-years tournament (akin to the FIBA World Cup). With scarcity comes chaos.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery game is life-or-death, right?\u201d Latvia\u2019s Kristaps Porzingis told reporters earlier this month. \u201cEvery possession matters, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s so fun for us as players and for the fans. The intensity is insane.\u201d<\/p>\n

EuroBasket 2025 looks to be even more star-studded than its predecessor, and with that comes plenty of NBA intrigue. It\u2019s been more than two months since Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals. We\u2019re starved for some elite competitive basketball, and EuroBasket is a perfect onboarding event for the season to come. The tournament officially tips off Wednesday and runs through Sept. 14. Here are some of the biggest teams, names, and trends to watch.<\/p>\n

Luka\u2019s in the Best Shape of His Career? Let\u2019s See Him Prove It.<\/p>\n

This is what most of us are here for, isn\u2019t it? I\u2019ve already written 2,500 words<\/a> about Doncic\u2019s offseason, but we\u2019ve finally arrived at a point beyond idle imagination. Slovenia has been privy to a streamlined Luka in past years, but this is the first time Doncic himself has made a holistic commitment to fitness beyond just being in basketball shape. It\u2019s time to see how that might manifest on the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is an intrinsic allure to imagining a more perfect Luka Doncic, who, even at his heftiest, was a top-five player in the world. If the primary goal of Luka\u2019s summer transformation was to reimagine his capacity and endurance, then the defenses that he\u2019ll be seeing at EuroBasket ought to toss him right into the fire. Last week, in a 106-72 loss to Serbia in a pre-tournament friendly, Slovenia\u2019s only objective was keeping Luka alive against a swarm. Doncic was doubled, tripled, and picked up full-court every single time down the floor. It was Wolverine clocking in at the Danger Room. It was one horse-sized duck versus 100 duck-sized horses. It was basically this:<\/p>\n

Doncic is Slovenia\u2019s air, its water, its only hope. Every team in the field knows it. There have been offseason reports that Luka has been working to get more comfortable playing off-ball<\/a>. There won\u2019t be many opportunities for that with his national team. Slovenia\u2019s first points in the Serbia match came off a Doncic relocation corner 3, sure, but Luka effectively created the shot for himself after driving into a crowd of three defenders and making a hanging jump pass to center Alen Omic, who instantly and instinctively whipped the ball back to Doncic:<\/p>\n

Eight years ago, an 18-year-old Luka was Goran Dragic\u2019s right-hand man in a stunning Slovenian bid for supremacy at EuroBasket 2017. But Dragic, the 2017 tournament MVP, isn\u2019t walking through that door. Naturalized Slovenian (and former Real Madrid teammate) Anthony Randolph isn\u2019t walking through that door. Neither is former Denver Nugget Vlatko Cancar, who opted out of national team play. There is no time machine to bring 2005 Jaka Lakovic into the future. There is, however, New York Knicks summer league invitee Luka Scuka, who ought to be good for a lob dunk or two (and whose name aptly reflects the mentality of every other powerhouse in the tournament).<\/p>\n

Slovenia has the seventh-best odds<\/a> of winning EuroBasket in a field of 24. Luka\u2019s capacity for individual brilliance seemingly has no bounds, but we might be creeping toward the upper limit here. For Lakers fans, consider EuroBasket Phase 2 of Luka\u2019s fitness plan. Doncic forwent actually playing basketball for months as he changed his diet and workout habits; now is his time to ramp up the on-court reps. He\u2019ll be hitting the ground running in 2025-26.<\/p>\n

Kind of Feels Like Someone Is Going to Break a Scoring Record\u00a0<\/p>\n

I doubt anyone is breaking Belgian Eddy Terrace\u2019s actual EuroBasket single-game scoring record of 63 points scored against Albania in 1957, but the modern EuroBasket record of 47 points set by Doncic against France in 2022\u2014one of the greatest individual performances ever<\/a>\u2014might be more viable given the sheer caliber of top-end talent in this year\u2019s tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luka might well do it himself given Slovenia\u2019s lack of true complementary options. Giannis is dominance incarnate, especially in FIBA play, but Greece\u2019s lack of reliable 3-point shooting may limit his upside. Perhaps the best bet to surpass Doncic\u2019s EuroBasket high mark is the person who\u2019s already done so this summer. Across Finland\u2019s first three pre-tournament friendlies, Lauri Markkanen averaged a baffling 40.3 points in 24 minutes, including a national team record 48-point performance against Belgium earlier this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Markkanen had a stellar EuroBasket campaign in 2022, presaging a breakout season with the Utah Jazz that saw him increase his scoring average by more than 10 points per game en route to a Most Improved Player award. But it\u2019s been a downward trend since then, with Markkanen having to shoot his way out of specialized defensive attention on a soft-tanking Jazz squad. He won\u2019t be catching anyone by surprise with his incendiary scoring these days, but there\u2019s a difference between steeling oneself for the possibility and actually knowing how to stop it. What can be done against a 7-footer who has shot 43 percent from 3 in 13 EuroBasket games since 2017 and whose first instinct is always to take his defender off the dribble and dunk on him? Markkanen is a rare FIBA archetype designed to excel at this level of competition. Dropping 50 in a game where he might have to play more than 30 minutes is very much in the range of possibility. He was already one of the more coveted trade targets in the league after a down year. If another EuroBasket bump is coming for Markkanen, Austin Ainge and the rest of the Jazz front office will have an awful lot to consider when legitimate offers come rolling in.<\/p>\n

All Hail the Favorites\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Serbia not only has the best player on the planet, but all-world continuity: 10 players on the roster return from both the 2023 FIBA World Cup and the 2024 Paris Olympics, where they pushed Team USA to the brink in one of the greatest basketball games of all time<\/a>. \u201cThis is not a team of [Nikola] Jokic and [Bogdan] Bogdanovic and the remaining 10. This is a team of 10 players plus Jokic and Bogdanovic,\u201d Serbia head coach Svetislav Pesic said. \u201cWhen you understand that, then you\u2019ll understand why we are a team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

They are the overwhelming favorite in the tournament, having gone undefeated against European teams across all international competitions since losing to Germany in the 2023 FIBA World Cup final. Jokic is essentially a lock to win MVP should things play out according to expectation. There\u2019s not much left to be said about Jokic\u2019s perfunctory dominance, other than Holy shit, dude is throwing down 180 reverse pump dunks in warm-ups these days:<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a reason Pesic didn\u2019t just single out Jokic as the team\u2019s lone exception. Having just turned 33, Bogdanovic, Serbia\u2019s team captain, remains one of the best scorers in international play. He\u2019s an ideal on-ball dance partner in the two-man game with Jokic, and one of the best perimeter release valves you could ask for: He\u2019s shot well over 40 percent from 3 on 6.5 attempts per game across both World Cup and Olympic games over the past two summers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be worth monitoring the kind of impact Serbia\u2019s youngest contributors have on the competition. The team has two other NBA players in Nikola Jovic and Tristan Vukcevic that could extend Serbia\u2019s window as an international powerhouse. (Nikola Topic, the no. 12 pick in the 2024 NBA draft and the youngest active NBA champion, didn\u2019t make the final roster cut, which shows how serious Serbia is about winning it all now as opposed to developing a possible star for high-pressure tournaments like the 2027 World Cup in Qatar or the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you weren\u2019t grinding late-season Wizards film, you probably aren\u2019t too familiar with Vukcevic\u2019s game, but he offers world-class 3-point shooting as a 7-footer. The third-year stretch big played 14 of Washington\u2019s final 16 games of the season (wherein the team went 3-13; alas, they did not capture the Flagg<\/a>), averaging 14.4 points per game<\/a> while shooting 43.4 percent from 3. Surely Serbia can find use for a big man who can confidently pull up for a 30-foot trailer 3<\/a> on a moment\u2019s notice.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jovic appears most due for a breakout. After missing the final two months of the regular season with the Miami Heat due to a broken bone in his right hand, he\u2019s spent the entire summer training and reportedly filling out his 6-foot-10 frame to 245 pounds. The added strength ought to augment Jovic\u2019s jack-of-all-trades game: He\u2019s become a reliable shooter from the corners, which has further leveraged his ability to attack closeouts and mismatches with his uncommon ballhandling and playmaking skills. It hasn\u2019t all come together for Jovic thus far, but there\u2019s a runway for him to get a taste for international stardom if he wants it.<\/p>\n

Giannis Is Back. Raise Hellas.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fair to wonder whether the world is still acclimating to the player Giannis Antetokounmpo has become. His presence at EuroBasket 2022 was an absolute privilege to observe: He was squarely in his prime at 27, just a year removed from reaching the pinnacle at the NBA level. He was utterly dominant, averaging 29.3 points in 28.3 minutes per game. He was leaping from just outside the painted area to block corner 3s; he was bulldozing players around the basket; he was the most self-possessed athlete the tournament had ever seen.<\/p>\n

Giannis remains one of the most compelling athletes in all of basketball, but European teams might not be accustomed to a few new tricks he\u2019s mastered in the intervening three years. In a pre-tournament exhibition against Latvia, Antetokounmpo was defended like he hasn\u2019t become one of the best midrange shooters in the game. Teams are rightfully terrified of his at-rim prowess, but fortifying a wall around the paint essentially allows Giannis all the space he needs to step into what has become his new bread-and-butter. As I wrote a few months ago<\/a>, Antetokounmpo became both a prolific and accurate midrange shooter last season. Giannis shot a pristine 46.2 percent on long 2s at least 17 feet out in 2024-25, according to Synergy Sports; only DeMar DeRozan (naturally) attempted more shots from that range. His form and setup have looked even more confident during these warm-up games, whether it\u2019s a pull-up off a few setup dribbles or a one-legged fadeaway out of the post. There might not be much to do but light the old scouting reports on fire and pray.<\/p>\n

Franz Wagner\u2019s Ascent Brings About Germany\u2019s Metamorphosis\u00a0<\/p>\n

Germany enters the tournament with the second-best odds of winning the championship, and have been the most consistent European team of the past half decade, taking home gold at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, bronze at EuroBasket 2022, and fourth place at the 2024 Olympics. This year\u2019s team could be the best version yet, with Die Mannschaft easing into the final stages of its succession plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dennis Schr\u00f6der has played for the German national team for most of the past decade, and has been one of the most decorated international players in the world, earning FIBA World Cup MVP honors in 2023 and landing on the All-Tournament Team in each of the past three major international tournaments: EuroBasket, FIBA World Cup, and the Olympics. Schr\u00f6der\u2019s game has always been built around converting his exceptional speed into opportunities in the paint, but his burst over the past four summers has revealed itself in time-release capsules\u2014if he doesn\u2019t get you on his first step, he\u2019ll get you on the secondary explosion after a hesitation dribble. He\u2019s tamed his unbridled playmaking instincts over the years to the point where he could credibly be considered a caretaker at point guard. And that might be the road he\u2019s heading down at EuroBasket.<\/p>\n

This will be the first year in nearly a decade wherein the guard, now 31, won\u2019t be considered the most important player on the team. Schr\u00f6der has played alongside Franz Wagner for the national team every year since 2021, when the latter was just 19 years old. Wagner\u2019s growth has been exponential; last year at the Olympics was the first time Wagner averaged more points and minutes per game than Schr\u00f6der in their time together.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wagner\u2019s talent has become undeniable. He averaged 24.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists, and 1.3 steals in 33.7 minutes per game last season in Orlando\u2014only Jokic, Antetokounmpo, and Kawhi Leonard have ever met those averages while also playing fewer than 34 minutes per game. Of course, the one aspect of his game that has consistently let him down has been his perimeter shooting. With a malleable game as an on- and off-ball creator, the ability to credibly pull up when defenses aren’t expecting it would open up his game considerably. But Wagner shot just 1-of-9 from long distance in pre-tournament exhibition games, despite some early buzz about his improved form<\/a>. His craft as a driver, especially in flow with Schr\u00f6der\u2019s own ability to get into the paint, however, will put most of the field in a bind. Lest we forget, Germany also has Andreas Obst, the best shooter in the tournament.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wagner will celebrate his 24th birthday this week; he\u2019s only now entering his prime years. He may be Orlando\u2019s Pippen,<\/a> but Germany needs him to be their Jordan. Should the team hold true to the standard it\u2019s set for itself over the past few summers, this could be the start of a prosperous era with Wagner as the undisputed focal point. With a youth movement<\/a> in the wings, it wouldn\u2019t be much of a shock if Wagner ends up supplanting Schr\u00f6der and Dirk Nowitzki as the most decorated German basketball player in national team play.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Four Wild Cards to Monitor<\/p>\n

Turkey is the biggest dark horse in the tournament. Alperen Sengun, Adem Bona (who moved to Turkey as a teen to play basketball after being scouted in Nigeria), and Omer Yurtseven make up one of the most formidable frontcourts in the field. NBA-caliber talents Furkan Korkmaz and Cedi Osman line the wings, and Shane Larkin, one of the best players in the Euroleague, is an ideal point guard for this tournament format. There\u2019s enough talent here to sneak onto the podium.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lithuania will be without its best player in Domantas Sabonis and rising young prospects Matas Buzelis and Kasparas Jakucionis. Still, it\u2019s hard to count out a team with Jonas Valanciunas, one of the steadiest international bigs of the past decade-plus. A fully loaded Lithuanian roster could be a handful in Qatar in 2027 and L.A. in 2028, but for now, it\u2019ll still be a pesky out, with Valanciunas, perhaps in his final starring role, playing off established perimeter talents including Rokas Jokubaitis and Deividas Sirvydis.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Spain is also a team in flux, with the eighth-best odds of winning the tournament, despite coming off a title and having the Hernangomez brothers back on the roster. Freshly paid Grizzlies big Santi Aldama is now the team\u2019s most talented player, but maybe most intriguing is Spain\u2019s point guard development. Likely 2026 NBA draft prospect Sergio De Larrea and new Gonzaga Bulldog Mario Saint-Supery are the new would-be heirs to the legacies of Ricky Rubio, Juan-Carlos Navarro, Sergio Rodriguez, and Sergio Llull. We wish them luck on their first assignment.<\/p>\n

Georgia is all about frontcourt funk. Goga Bitadze is a phenomenal passer for a center built like a medieval castle watchtower. New Toronto Raptor Sandro Mamukelashvili and longtime Euroleague staple Tornike Shengelia are versatile dribble-pass-shoot bigs who play like wings and imagine themselves as guards. At the very least, it\u2019ll be fun to watch Mamukelashvili take on his former Bucks teammate Giannis, who once destroyed Mamukelashvili in training camp<\/a> after making up a scenario in his head that Mamu had talked trash to his face.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s Youth Revolution Gets Its Trial Run<\/p>\n

Consider this a developmental summer for Les Bleus. There is admittedly less hype around the French team at this EuroBasket (with international phenom Victor Wembanyama forgoing participation in favor of the 36th Chamber<\/a>) but it still boasts one of the deepest rosters even if there isn\u2019t a true focal point. Guerschon Yabusele and Isaia Cordinier were stalwarts during France\u2019s silver-medal run in Paris last year, and their veteran presence will serve as the foundation for a team that has opted to go without both Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier for the first time in years. But France\u2019s ultimate ceiling will be decided by just how much of a leap their three recent lottery products have taken this summer. Will one of Alex Sarr, Bilal Coulibaly, or Zaccharie Risacher emerge as the team\u2019s best player?<\/p>\n

Sarr is the most tantalizing player on the roster, a 7-footer with special movement skills who might have the best end-to-end speed of any big man in the tournament. It\u2019s tempting to get lost in daydream thinking about the amount of space he and Wemby could eat on defense as a tandem in the future. Sarr is a vague nebula on the other end. He has passing vision, some semblance of long-range touch, and the ballhandling ability of a player much shorter. For now, all of Sarr\u2019s potential rests in the skills that distinguish him from most centers; but in a tournament without the team\u2019s two marquee big men (or even rotational 5s like Vincent Poirier or Moussa Diabate), can he adequately step into their shoes? There will be some infrastructural disadvantages, just like Wembanyama found out last summer. For as much talent as France is churning out these days, it\u2019s been more than a decade of searching for a true successor to Tony Parker (or even Nando De Colo) at point guard. Without a difference-making setup man, Sarr\u2019s flashes of brilliance will likely come on transition plays.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Risacher and Coulibaly present two sides of France\u2019s big wing thesis. Risacher maps more cleanly onto the tried-and-true 3-and-D archetype. His percentages don\u2019t reflect how potent of a shooter he can be off the catch given his lightning-quick release, but it\u2019s clear that both the Hawks and the French team view him as one of their best marksmen long term. (Of course, that kind of respect from outside empowers baseline bangers like these<\/a>.) And while he has a ways to go in terms of strengthening his core to withstand chest bumps while walling off drives, his lateral mobility and spatial awareness allow him to be a solid defender both at the point of attack and in help.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coulibaly doesn\u2019t have Risacher\u2019s offensive polish, but there aren\u2019t many wings that combine his elite, unbridled athleticism and innate defensive playmaking instincts. If the early signs of 3-point shooting improvement during the EuroBasket friendlies can be trusted, Coulibaly does have access to some latent star power. That\u2019s what France is banking on. The national team is clearly invested in his potential; he was given a spot on France\u2019s Olympic roster as a 19-year-old (who turned 20 on Day 1 of the Games), making him the youngest Frenchman on the Olympic squad since Philippe Baillet in 1960 and the youngest player to make a senior men\u2019s team since Tony Parker in 2001.<\/p>\n

France has the third-best odds of winning the tournament, but in one of the most star-studded EuroBaskets ever, it\u2019s fair to wonder whether, after the shock of 2022, depth might succumb to the all-time talents in France\u2019s midst.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Danny Chau<\/p>\n

<\/a>Chau writes about the NBA and gustatory pleasures, among other things. He is the host of \u2018Shift Meal.\u2019 He is based in Toronto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBANBAThe NBA couldn\u2019t be deader, but EuroBasket 2025 is here to save us. Get ready for Lean Luka,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-95875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}