Ljubljana - Slovenia tops the first power ranking forecast by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) ahead of the European Basketball Championship coming up in September. The defending champions are placed before France and Greece.

FIBA says that "Luka Dončić is elite and the 'supporting cast' more than proved their value last summer in the Olympics journey".

It says the "big question is whether FIBA EuroBasket 2017 MVP Goran Dragić" jonns the national team this time round, as he is expected to announce his decision this week.

Apart from Slovenia, France and Greece, the top ten teams also include Serbia, Lithuania, Spain, Turkey, Italy, Germany and the Czech Republic.

In the first round of preliminaries, Slovenia will face Lithuania, Hungary, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Germany and France.

The team is currently in training camp and will be playing preparation games with the Netherlands and Montenegro on Thursday and Saturday.