Olympics hoops just ended, but it’s already time to look towards the men's FIBA World Cup

Seven countries from the Americas will qualify for the 2023 World Cup. The teams who qualified for 2019 were Argentina, who won silver, USA, Brazil, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Canada, finishing in that order. For this first group phase, three games will be played by each team against one another, and the team with the worst record in each group will be eliminated before the next phase. In round two of the group phase, the 12 teams that moved on will be moved into two six-team groups. Here are the groups for the 2023 qualification process.

• Group A: Argentina (7), Venezuela (17), Panama (48), Paraguay (73)
• Group B: Brazil (15), Uruguay (40), Colombia (66), Chile (67)
• Group C: Canada (18), Dominican Republic (20), US Virgin Islands (52), Bahamas (59)
• Group D: USA (1), Puerto Rico (19), Mexico (24), Cuba (64)

The Wildest Card: Could Puerto Rico get Shabazz Napier (currently a free agent) and other American-born Boricuas to compete on their behalf? If qualified, would they be able to field a team with NBA-level descendants like Napier, Moe Harkless, and Jonathan Isaac to go along with rising college stars like André Curbelo, Eric Ayala, Trent Frazier, and George Conditt IV? If so, along with their veterans already rostered, they’ll be one of the most dangerous teams in the Americas.

Africa didn’t have a great World Cup in 2019, but Nigeria did make noise in the Olympic scrimmages with victories over Team USA and Argentina before going 0-3 in the actual games. In the 2019 World Cup, Africa sent Nigeria, Tunisia, Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, and Senegal, none of whom made it past group play. Five will again represent the Africas in this forthcoming World Cup. Their second phase is the format same as The Americas.

• Group A: Nigeria (23), Mali (75), Uganda, (90), Cape Verde (100)
• Group B: Tunisia (30), Cameroon (63), South Sudan (94), Rwanda (95)
• Group C: Angola (33), Cote d’Ivoire (46), Central African Rep. (76), Guinea (118)
• Group D: Senegal (36), Egypt (62), Congo DR (81), Kenya (111)

An Enormous What If: Cameroon has an uphill climb, but it’s doable, so let’s ask: If they could become one of the five teams to qualify for the World Cup, would that be enough for Joel Embiid and Pascal Siakam to finally represent their national team? Neither has done so yet as a pro, though Embiid came pretty close in 2017.

This also has the same format as the Americas and the Africas, so nothing new on that front. This will also be the second straight World Cup hosted by an Asian nation as 2019’s took place in China.

Japan, The Philippines, and Indonesia are hosts, and normally they’d all automatically qualify for the cup. Because Indonesia’s world team hasn’t been competitive, they had to first qualify for the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup, which will now be played in 2022 due to COVID. Japan and The Philippines are automatically in, and Indonesia is to be determined, but they’re all scheduled to participate in World Cup qualifiers anyway.

In the 2019 World Cup, Asia/Oceania sent eight teams over: Australia, who finished fourth, New Zealand, Iran, China, South Korea, Jordan, Japan, and The Philippines. The 2023 groups, of which eight teams will emerge by World Cup, are as follows:

• Group A: New Zealand (25), South Korea (29), Philippines (31), India (78)
• Group B: Australia (3), China (28), Japan (35), Chinese Taipei (68)
• Group C: Jordan (39), Lebanon (56), Indonesia (85), Saudi Arabia (87)
• Group D: Iran (22), Kazakhstan (72), Syria (82), Bahrain (102)

Australia vs. Everybody: After years of falling short, the Aussies finally got their first major medal, winning the Olympic bronze medal in the 2021 games following a terrific run, snapping an 0-4 streak semifinal shortcomings. In 2019, they made their first World Cup semi, again finishing fourth, but it was their best showing in history. They’re good enough to win it all, and now that they’ve had a taste, we’ll see how it translates to this world stage.

The biggest is saved for last. Europe has 32 teams split into eight groups to determine 12 World Cup berths. It’s damn near their own personal World Cup. This is where you’ll see many of the best games, and many of the world’s powers outside those aforementioned. The 12 who qualified for the 2019 Cup were Spain, the defending Champions, France, who finished third in the Cup and second in the Olympics earlier this month, Serbia, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Italy, Greece, Russia, Germany, Turkey, and Montenegro. Slovenia, who didn’t qualify for the 2019 World’s, finished fourth in their first Olympic games this month.

• Group A: Serbia (6), Latvia (27), Belgium (38), Slovakia (65)
• Group B: Greece (10), Turkey (16), Great Britain (42), Belarus (51)
• Group C: Slovenia (4), Croatia (21), Finland (34), Sweden (57)
• Group D: Germany (11), Poland (13), Israel (43), Estonia (49)
• Group E: France (5), Montenegro (26), Hungary (41), Portugal (58)
• Group F: Lithuania (9), Czech Republic (12), Bosnia (44), Bulgaria (50)
• Group G: Spain (2), Ukraine (32), Georgia (37), North Macedonia (53)
• Group H: Italy (8), Russia (14), Netherlands (45), Iceland (47)

They’re Not Coming; They’re Already Here: Slovenia moved up 12 spots after their Olympic performance. Luka Dončić led the way but is far from alone with high-level pro teammates like Zoran (Goran’s brother) Dragić, Vlatko Čančar, and Mike Tobey, who were among those to show out this summer. Slovenia has qualified for three World Cups in their history, with their best performance coming in 2014, where they finished seventh. Before the 2023 games, they’ll be part of the 2022 Eurobasket, which they won in 2017, led by Tournament MVP Goran Dragić and an 18-year-old Dončić.