No summer Olympics means no Stephen Curry clutch performances, ageless LeBron James performances or opportunities for Kevin Durant to stack up more gold medals, but there is still a way for NBA fans to get their international fix with EuroBasket 2025.
The tournament, which runs Aug. 27 through Sept. 14, will feature the French and Serbian squads that Team USA beat in the knockout rounds of the 2024 Olympics, plus 22 other teams from across the continent. While not every European NBA star will play, the overlap between the league and this event has never been more significant. Heavyweights like Serbia, Germany, France, Greece and Slovenia will have multiple NBA names on their roster. And with international stars shaping so much of today’s NBA landscape, how these players perform in the league offers one of the best guides to their potential impact at this tournament — and vice versa.
That’s what fuels our ranking of the Top 10 NBA players at EuroBasket 2025.
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We looked at each player’s projected performance for the 2025-26 NBA season using estimated RAPTOR to combine individual statistics with a player’s team impact for an overall measure of player value. We then factored in a version of Basketball-Reference’s simple projection system, which accounts for age and past production to forecast both offensive and defensive RAPTOR for any player with NBA minutes over the past three seasons.
Keep in mind that these numbers represent a player’s projected performance for the entire 2025-26 NBA season, so their form could be different now than it will be next spring, depending on the aging curve. Older veterans might be fresher in this tournament than they will be after 82 games, while younger players could still be on the upswing.
Teams are still finalizing rosters, with participation for players such as Giannis Antetokounmpo not yet confirmed, and this ranking focuses on players who are currently expected to appear.
In any case, the projections give us a clear idea of who could headline EuroBasket 2025 ahead of a big NBA season, so let’s get to the ranking.
Editor’s note: This list has been updated to reflect the confirmation of Lauri Markkanen to Finland’s roster, bumping Nikola Jovic out of the top 10.
2025-26 age: 30 | Denver Nuggets
2024-25 estimated projections: plus-7.1 offense | plus-1.1 defense | plus-8.2 overall
Was there any doubt The Joker would rank No. 1 among NBA talents who could lift the EuroBasket trophy next month? Jokić had the highest RAPTOR during the 2024-25 regular season, a distinction he has held for five consecutive seasons. Now he’ll lead a Serbian squad that is a heavy favorite to win the tournament at ESPN BET
and likely extra motivated after blowing a 13-point lead heading into the fourth quarter of last summer’s Olympic semifinal loss to the United States.
Serbia hasn’t won EuroBasket since 2001, and Jokić wasn’t on the team that made the final in 2017, so a win would be a chance at even more hardware for the player who otherwise has just about everything else.
2025-26 age: 31 | Milwaukee Bucks
2024-25 estimated projections: plus-5.0 offense | plus-0.7 defense | plus-5.7 overall
Antetokounmpo has finished no lower than fourth in NBA MVP voting for an incredible seven straight seasons and has won it twice, though the Bucks have claimed only a single championship in that span. He finds himself in a similar role with Greece at the international level: He averaged 25.8 points at the Olympics last summer, but his team finished eighth. And he led all scorers with 29.3 PPG at EuroBasket 2022, but Greece finished fifth.
The team won this event in 2005 and medaled again in 2009, so, ironically, the emergence of the country’s greatest NBA player has coincided with mediocre showings at international tournaments. If he gets cleared to play, Antetokounmpo should once again dominate individually.
2025-26 age: 26 | Los Angeles Lakers
2024-25 estimated projections: plus-4.5 offense | plus-0.7 defense | plus-5.2 overall
Arguably the biggest appeal of this tournament for NBA fans is the chance to see Dončić in meaningful action for the first time since his much-discussed summer body transformation. Of course, the statistical forecasts can’t factor in those physique changes, but they do know that Dončić maintained a relatively steady version of his impact after his shocking midseason trade to the Lakers, even if he wasn’t as dominant in the first-round playoff defeat as he had been in leading Dallas to the 2024 NBA Finals.
After evading a significant injury during a recent exhibition game, EuroBasket should be Dončić’s usual showcase. He has been a fixture on this stage since playing for the gold medal-winning Slovenian team in 2017 at age 17, and he was one of the best players in the 2022 tournament — an early sign that he was about to take his game to an even higher level. Slovenia follows Serbia, Germany and France on the odds board, but another new-and-improved version of Dončić could be the difference-maker.
2025-26 age: 24 | Orlando Magic
2024-25 estimated projections: plus-3.1 offense | plus-0.9 defense | plus-4.0 overall
Wagner has long been a fixture on these RAPTOR-based lists, and his presence has aged well. Set to turn 24 on the opening day of EuroBasket, he is coming off the best season of his NBA career despite battling through a torn right oblique at midseason. He has already had success in these international tournaments: He won bronze with Germany at EuroBasket 2022, gold at the 2023 FIBA World Cup then finished fourth at the Olympics last year.
While Germany’s roster features multiple NBA players — and could have had more if Isaiah Hartenstein and Franz’s brother Moritz weren’t missing the tournament — Wagner is the biggest reason Germany has the second-best odds to win it. And if his 3-point shot is as improved as the pre-tournament buzz would indicate, this could be a preview of another arrow in his quiver for the next NBA season.
2025-26 age: 23 | Houston Rockets
2024-25 estimated projections: plus-1.8 offense | plus-0.6 defense | plus-2.4 overall
Şengün has said he wants to win both EuroBasket 2025 and an NBA championship with the Rockets this season. Houston does look solid enough — it has the fifth-best title odds — after adding Kevin Durant to a young core headlined by Şengün and Amen Thompson. But Şengün will have to raise his game early to win the EuroBasket for a Turkish squad that is tied for seventh to win the tournament and hasn’t finished better than eighth since winning silver in 2001.
This will be one of the highest-profile international events Şengün has played in, and like with Wagner, it will be a chance to showcase any developments in his shooting ability. After hitting only 23.3% of his shots from downtown last season, Şengün’s jumper is one of the few weaknesses left for him to correct before leaping into another tier of young stars.
2025-26 age: 30 | Atlanta Hawks
2024-25 estimated projections: plus-1.7 offense | plus-0.4 defense | plus-2.2 overall
After a successful stint with the Celtics that helped bring Boston the 2024 NBA title, the one-time “unicorn” turns to the next chapter of his hoops career. Before he takes the court for the Hawks, though, he will add to a EuroBasket résumé that has been dormant for nearly a decade. A 21-year-old Porziņģis impressed for Latvia in 2017, averaging 23.6 points and 6.0 rebounds as Latvia finished fifth. This year’s roster, which also features former NBA players Dāvis and Dairis Bertāns, has lower expectations with the ninth-best odds. But Latvia did finish fifth in the 2023 FIBA World Cup and is the main host country for EuroBasket 2025, which should provide a bump in Porziņģis’ performance.
2025-26 age: 28 | Utah Jazz
2024-25 estimated projections: plus-2.2 offense | minus-0.9 defense | plus-1.3 overall
Markkanen was one of the NBA’s most impressive players in both the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, even reaching the level of performance that made him a possible member of a championship-contending core by historical NBA standards. But last season he experienced drops across nearly all of his metrics, resulting in a below-average estimated RAPTOR (minus-0.5). He still projects as an above-average player based on his strengths, but he needs to bounce back this season to return to that star track from before. And if his performance in pre-tournament friendlies is any indication — he had 42 points and 12 rebounds against Poland earlier in the week — Markkanen might be motivated for another big performance in the tournament.
2025-26 age: 25 | Portland Trail Blazers
2024-25 estimated projections: plus-0.7 offense | plus-0.4 defense | plus-1.1 overall
Avdija is possibly the most underrated player at this EuroBasket. He made full use of a trade that sent him from the Washington Wizards to the Portland Trail Blazers this past summer, breaking out for new career high averages in points(16.9), rebounds (7.3), assists (3.9), True Shooting percentage (60.5%), PER (17.7), Win Shares (5.6), estimated RAPTOR (plus-1.7) and WAR (5.1). Hints of further progress as a shooter and ball handler would prove his staying power.
He does have a history of big performances on the international stage: He was MVP of the 2019 FIBA U20 European Championship, hosted in his native Israel, averaging 18.4 points, 8.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.1 steals and 2.4 blocks en route to gold. Though that type of team success is unlikely this time around (Israel is tied for the lowest odds in the field), Avdija should put up good individual numbers.
2025-26 age: 25 | Memphis Grizzlies
2024-25 estimated projections: plus-0.4 offense | plus-0.5 defense | plus-0.9 overall
Spain is a team in transition, and Aldama will be in the middle of all that upheaval. The defending champs have won four of the past six EuroBaskets and finished outside the podium just once since 1997 when it finished fourth in 2005. However, they slipped to ninth in the 2023 FIBA World Cup and 10th in the 2024 Olympics, as the veterans who powered their golden era have slowed down or been phased out.
Longtime coach Sergio Scariolo — a four-time EuroBasket champion who has mostly led this team since 2009 — will depart after the tournament. That means, with help from Willy and Juancho Hernangómez, Aldama is one of the leaders of the next generation of Spain stars. He was one of the most improved players in the NBA last season, rising from a RAPTOR of minus-1.7 to plus-1.8 on the strength of a more versatile offensive skillset (and with better talent to play with on a revitalized Grizzlies squad). Still, Spain is likely to abdicate its EuroBasket crown, ranking a distant sixth on the odds board.
2025-26 age: 26 | Boston Celtics
2024-25 estimated projections: minus-0.4 offense | plus-0.7 defense | plus-0.2 overall
Queta posted an impressive plus-4.6 RAPTOR in a very limited sample of 333 minutes (11.9 MPG) in 2023-24 but fell to minus-0.1 in an expanded role with 863 minutes in Boston’s crowded center rotation last season. He didn’t exactly have the same on-versus-off-court team efficiency split (plus-9.4 per 100 possessions) he had boasted a year before. Still, league-average NBA players don’t exactly grow on trees, and this is a good chance for Queta to improve on a relatively high-level international stage.
Other players to watch: Nikola Vučević, Montenegro (Chicago Bulls); Dennis Schröder, Germany (Sacramento Kings); Guerschon Yabusele, France (New York Knicks); Bogdan Bogdanović, Serbia (LA Clippers); Pelle Larsson, Sweden (Miami Heat); Luka Garza, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Boston Celtics)
