Bircevic goes as Djordjevic trims roster to 18 players

BELGRADE (EuroBasket 2015) - Serbia coach Aleksandar Djordjevic now has an 18-man list to work with as he draws closer to the start of the team's preparations for EuroBasket 2015.

Stefan Bircevic, Milan Macvan, Nikola Jokic, Djordie Maistorovic, Vasilije Micic and Rade Zagorac have been cut from the original 24-man group announced several weeks ago.

Bircevic is the only player of the six cuts to have featured for Serbia at last year's FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain where they finished runners-up.

Djordjevic's men are in Group B of EuroBasket 2015 and will face Italy, Turkey, Iceland, Spain and Germany.

Expectations are high for the national team following last year's big run to the Final in Spain, one that saw Serbia beat Greece, Brazil and France in the knockout phase before falling to the United States in the title game.

Serbia's players will gather on 15 July in Belgrade to undergo medical tests and shortly after, they will travel to Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, for a training camp.

Serbia will play their first warm-up game on 2 August, against Hungary.

Serbia preliminary squad for EuroBasket 2015: Nemanja Bjelica, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Nemanja Dangubic, Zoran Erceg, Stefan Jovic, Nikola Kalinic, Marko Keselj, Ognjen Kuzmic, Boban Marjanovic, Stefan Markovic, Dragan Milosavljevic, Nikola Milutinov, Luka Mitrovic, Nemanja Nedovic, Miroslav Raduljica, Marko Simonovic, Vladimir Stimac and Milos Teodosic.

Go to eurobasket2015.org for more coverage of EuroBasket 2015.

FIBA