Gortat headlines Poland's EuroBasket 2015 preliminary squad

WARSAW (EuroBasket 2015) - Washington Wizards center Marcin Gortat is the big star on Poland's 23-strong preliminary roster announced for EuroBasket 2015 by head coach Mike Taylor.

Gortat skipped Poland's qualification campaign last summer and last pulled on the national team jersey at EuroBasket 2013, in Slovenia.

His contribution of 10.4 points and 7.8 rebounds per game however was not enough to salvage Poland's disastrous campaign in that tournament, as the team which was then coached by Dirk Bauermann crashed out in the first round on a 1-4 record.

The 31-year-old Polish center is now coming off one of the best seasons in his eight-year career in the NBA as he established himself as a key piece on the ambitious Washington team which reached the second round of the playoffs.

Gortat averaged 12.2 points on 56.6 percent shooting from the floor, 8.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks during the regular season and maintained his stat lines almost identical in the post-season contributing 12.4 points, 8.8 boards and 1.1 blocked shots per encounter during the series against the Toronto Raptors and Atlanta Hawks.

Another Polish star who missed out on the EuroBasket qualification campaign but is included in the 24 names on the squud is Maciej Lampe.

The FC Barcelona forward/center has still a minimum of two weeks left in the current season, as his team are at the moment competing in the Liga Endesa play-off semi-finals.

Lampe is averaging 8.3 points and 4.8 boards in the Spanish league while he had 6.2 points and 3.8 rebounds in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague, where Barcelona reached the quarter-finals.

Another veteran big man who is included in Poland's preliminary squad, despite stating after EuroBasket 2013 that he was retiring from international duty, is Michal Ignerski.

The 35-year-old sharp-shooting power forward had a solid EuroChallenge campaign with French club Le Mans, averaging 12.9 points and 4.1 rebounds in the competition.

All the players who helped Poland secure a EuroBasket berth are also included on the list, including in-form 25-year-old winger Adam Waczynski.

Waczynski led the national team in scoring with 14 points per game, also averaging 3.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists in the EuroBasket 2015 2nd Qualifying Round last summer and has just concluded a highly-promising maiden club season outside Poland.

He averaged 12.5 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists for Rio Natura Monbus Obradoiro in his first season in the Spanish Liga Endesa.

Coach Taylor has specified that he will soon trim the squad to 16 players, most probably even before the start of training camp on 20 July.

The Poland boss also stated that the squad will also include a naturalised guard, whose name has not yet been announced.

"I am very excited about the potential that this team has," Taylor said.

"Throughout the season I followed games, I analysed different possibilities, I worked with the Polish Federation and together we decided on the composition of the team this year.

"The EuroBasket is a big challenge but I am sure that, based on last year's success, we can build a good team that will make Poland proud in September," Taylor added optimistically.

Poland will play their first two warm-up games against neighbours Czech Republic, on 1 and 2 August.

Taylor's team will later also face Latvia, Slovenia and Spain and conclude their preparations at home, as they play host to a tournament in Bydgoszcz which also includes Belgium, The Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia (MKD) and Iceland, from 28-30 August.

Poland will then depart for Montpellier, where they will go up against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Russia, Israel and hosts France in Group A of EuroBasket 2015.

Poland preliminary squad for EuroBasket 2015 (not including the soon-to-be-announced naturalised player): Dardan Berisha, Aaron Cel, Michal Chylinski, Aleksander Czyz, Tomasz Gielo, Marcin Gortat, Karol Gruszecki, Adam Hrycaniuk, Michal Ignerski, Przemyslaw Karnowski, Lukasz Koszarek, Damian Kulig, Kamil Laczynski, Maciej Lampe, Michal Michalak, Jaroslaw Mokros, Mateusz Ponitka, Robert Skibniewski, Michal Sokolowski, Szymon Szewczyk, Adam Waczynski, Lukasz Wisniewski, Przemyslaw Zamojski.

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

FIBA