FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 All-Second Team announced / News - Basketnews.com

Arturs Zagars (Latvia), Simone Fontecchio (Italy), Jonas Valanciunas (Lithuania), Nikola Milutinov (Serbia), and Franz Wagner (Germany) have been named to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 All-Second Team.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

After the end of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 All-Second Team in this men's national team competition.

The All-Second Teamhonors go to Arturs Zagars of Latvia, Simone Fontecchio of Italy, Jonas Valanciunas of Lithuania, Nikola Milutinov of Serbia, and Franz Wagner of Germany.

Latvia had a very reliable core, yet their 5th place finish is impossible to imagine without the wizardry of point guard Arturs Zagars.

Their great team basketball started with the 23-year-old who led Latvia through a few tight fourth quarters, averaging 12.4 points and 7.4 assists per contest.

He put a bow on his heroics with a World Cuprecord-breaking performance of 17 assists and 0 turnovers against Lithuania.

Simone Fontecchio only continued what he had started in Tokyo 2020 and FIBA EuroBasket 2022, again proving himself as one of the very best scorers in the world.

The Italian forward averaged 18.0 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, with his 30-point performance in a comeback victory against Serbia being his main tournament masterpiece that helped Italy land a spot in the Quarter-Finals.

Few have combined reliable low post scoring and unstoppable rebounding like Jonas Valanciunas has. Valanciunas put up a steady 14.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game across the World Cup, which included a sensational victory against the USA.

The Lithuanian center is now the second player (with Jose Ortiz) to have recorded multiple double-doubles in three World Cup tournaments since 1994.

Nikola Milutinov was consistent around both baskets for finalistsSerbia throughout the whole World Cup.

The 28-year-old center was their main frontcourt option and averaged 12.1 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. Excellent execution of fundamentals was his main calling card, which manifests itself in his great 66.1% shooting from the field and several very efficient games.

Franz Wagner recovered from an ankle injury during the World Cup and continued to play as if nothing had happened.

His 16.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game averages don't even tell the whole story.

The 21-year-old was instrumental in all elimination games, first with 16 points off the bench in a thriller with Latvia, then scoring 22 in Germany's memorable triumph against the USA, finishing it out with 19 points in the Final.

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