TBILISI (Georgia) - Spain, the reigning FIBA Basketball World Cup champions, are in the middle of transition to a new generation. That's exactly what all the other teams in FIBA EuroBasket 2022 Group A wanted to hear.

Turkey are looking like a solid candidate to reach the latter stages of this event. Georgia will hope they can get something done on home court with their super-big lineup. Belgium are hoping to build on their positive runs which started way back in the Pre-Qualifiers for this event.

Montenegro were a late addition after the suspension of Russia, but still look strong as ever, and Bulgaria have a superstar in Sasha Vezenkov, which could be their ticket to Berlin.

World rank	Country	Zone rank	Current points
2.	Spain	1.	724.0
16.	Turkey	12.	504.6
25.	Montenegro	14.	399.6
36.	Georgia	18.	301.5
37.	Belgium	19.	296.6
52.	Bulgaria	29.	208.5

Team to beat: Spain

There were numerous lessons throughout basketball history, all getting down to one conclusion: Whenever you're talking about teams to beat and podium challengers, make sure to include Spain in the mix, because they made winning a habit.

The world champions are without the Gasol brothers; Ricky Rubio is also out, and Sergio Llull suffered an injury in training camp, meaning the nation had to revamp their roster completely. Luckily, they have one of the biggest basketball masterminds to orchestrate the changes.

Sergio Scariolo came up with a new plan. Lorenzo Brown is now handling point guard duties, the Hernangomez brothers are up for bigger roles, Rudy Fernandez will provide veteran leadership, while Usman Garuba and Joel Parra are the young guns.

They may not have the talent of their golden generation, but this squad and their team-first mentality means they are still the team to beat in Group A.

Player to watch: Alperen Sengun

The 20-year-old center is the real deal. The Houston Rockets knew what they were getting long term when they traded a couple of first round picks to Oklahoma City Thunder for Sengun in the 2021 NBA Draft, but nobody expected him to blossom so fast.

He played 72 NBA games last season, starting 13 of them, getting 9.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists in just 20.7 minutes per game. With the Turkish national team, he already had a couple of big games this summer - 17 points, 13 rebounds and 2 blocks against Serbia; 10 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists against Greece.

With his gravity in the middle, guys like Furkan Korkmaz, Cedi Osman and Shane Larkin could get a lot of space to attack and take Turkey to new heights in 2022.

Group A team profiles

Montenegro: The best non-Qualified team gets another chance to prove their worth.

Georgia: The hosts trying to make history with an impressively big lineup.

Spain: The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 winners looking to stretch their podium streak to seven FIBA EuroBasket events.

Bulgaria: Dee Bost and Sasha Vezenkov, an ideal one-two punch to bring Bulgaria back to the big stage.

Belgium: Can they translate their fine Qualifiers form onto FIBA EuroBasket 2022?

Turkey: All in with Ergin Ataman and the star power of Larkin, Osman, Korkmaz and Sengun.

The games in Tbilisi tip off on Thursday, September 1. Full schedule is available here.