Spain has announced the 16-player preliminary list for the country's men's national basketball team. Four NBA players, Marc Gasol of the Toronto Raptors, Ricky Rubio of the UTAH Jazz, Juan Hernangomez of the Denver Nuggets and Willy Hernangomez of the Charlotte Hornets all made the list.

What came as a surprise was that Serge Ibaka of the Raptors and Nikola Mirotic who just returned to Europe did not find their names on the list. Neither did Pau Gasol of the Milwaukee Bucks who had a foot surgery in May. Other big names on the list included Rudy Fernandez and Quino Colom.

Though Pau Gasol, the MVP at the 2006 FIBA World Championship who led Spain to win the title undefeated has to miss the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup because of injury, the team is still talented enough.

"Marc Gasol is destined to take a leadership step, is ready and is looking forward to it. He's going to be an important reference offensively and defensively, but he's not the only one that has to fill the void. His great talent and capacity is that he wants to generate for the team," Sergio Scariolo, head coach of Spain, told FIBA.com.

The list also included some new faces, who Scariolo said earned their right to be recruited with their "capacity and ability to play basketball," not just because they helped Spain qualify for the World Cup.

Spain is in Group C with Iran, Tunisia and Puerto Rico. Getting out of this group should not be difficult for the team, but they are aiming for more.

"After a tough road in qualifying, it has allowed us to enlarge the squad. It's a mix of NBA, EuroLeague, window players, veterans and youngsters, versatile players. It's a very enthusiastic squad list. We have to be humble, have respect for the competition but with maximum ambition," said Jorge Garbajosa, president of the Spanish Basketball Federation, FIBA.com reported.

Spain will meet their first opponent Tunisia on August 31 in Guangzhou of south China's Guangdong Province.