Serbia’s team-first way to FIBA success

World basketball fans should know Serbia by now. They reached the finals of the FIBA U19 in 2013 and the FIBA World Cup in Spain in 2014, losing to USA both times. They finished 2nd at the 2016 Olympics, 2nd at the 2017 Eurobasket, and 5th at the FIBA World Cup in China in 2019.

At the FIBA World Cup 2023 in Manila, even without Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, they blew out Dominican Republic and Lithuania en route to the semi-finals against Canada. In the tournament, they’ve generated 56 steals while giving up only 57 turnovers.

Since they like to push the break and move the ball to the open man, they’ve made 55 percent of field goals and 38 percent of threes in the tournament.

They are a deep, disciplined, team-oriented team led by legendary coach Svetislav Pesic.

“They are a very good team, coached by one of the best European coaches ever,” said Canada head coach Jordi Fernandez. “I’ve watched him since I was a little kid, he won with FC Barcelona in 2003. A great coach, a great program, guys who know what it is, who have a lot of FIBA experience, something that we lack, but we’re getting this day by day.”

Pesic praised his team for dishing 25 assists against Lithuania in the quarters. “We’re the best team of the World Cup in fast break points, we score 25 transition points per game. We don’t have a lot of size, but we keep finding ways to use our good sides and hide the bad ones. Every player gave his all for the team, that’s important for us. This has been our motto, all for one and one for all.”

Bogdan Bogdanovic, who averages around 15 points per game with the Atlanta Hawks, led the 2019 World Cup tournament in scoring, and has 400 career points at FIBA world cups. In this tournament, he’s averaging 18.8 points, 4.8 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game. Other than Serbia’s loss to Italy, Bogdanovic has made 15 of 30 threes in five games.

Serbia has a balanced, inside-out attack. Nikola Milutinov, a former first round pick of San Antonio Spurs who became one of the top centers in the European league for a decade, is averaging 13.2 points and 8.8 rebounds per game in the world cup.

Filip Petrusev, who played high school basketball with Canada’s RJ Barrett, is headed to play with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Nikola Jovic plays for Miami Heat, and Marko Guduric played for Memphis Grizzlies.

Aleksa Avramovic and Stefan Jovic are agile guards who can generate steals and blocks, push the ball, penetrate, dish and hit open looks.

In addition, Serbia is playing for Borisa Simanic, who underwent emergency surgery in Manila to remove a kidney after taking an accidental elbow from Nuni Omot of South Sudan.