Kieron Achara admitted Great Britain have a fight on their hands to make an impact at next summer’s EuroBasket finals after they were drawn against Rio 2016 silver medallists Serbia in the initial group phase of the competition which will be staged in Istanbul.
GB will also face past winners Latvia plus Russia, co-hosts Turkey and Belgium – who are set to be their opening opponents on September 1 – with the top four in the pool advancing to the knockout phase which will be held in the Turkish city.
And Achara admitted it will test his team’s ability to rise to the challenge after missing out on the 2015 edition of the tournament, especially with it considered unlikely that Los Angeles Lakers star Luol Deng will return from international exile.
“The big positive is that we’re there but there are no easy groups,” the Glasgow Rocks forward said. “The level of competition is huge. What was exciting for me was to get the group in Istanbul. I know how passionate the fans will be there. But all the teams can play. We’ve played Serbia and they’re always strong. Even Belgium have improved a lot. We just have to challenge ourselves against all of them.”
The other three groups in the first round will be held in Helsinki, Tel Aviv and Cluj, where 2015 champions Spain will begin the defence of their trophy.
Group A (Helsinki): Poland, Greece, France, Finland, Lithuania, Slovenia
Group B (Tel Aviv): Israel, Iceland, Georgia, Italy, Germany, Ukraine
Group C (Cluj): Croatia, Czech Republic, Spain, Montenegro, Romania, Hungary,
Group D (Istanbul): Great Britain, Russia, Serbia, Latvia, Turkey, Belgium
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