Panama
FIBA Ranking: 33
NBA Players on Roster: None
Outlook: First, the good news. Panama recently participated in the Copa Latina de Baloncesto (a FIBA Americas tuneup), easily winning each of their three games.
The not-so-good news is the competition wasn’t high-caliber. No offense to the national programs in Costa Rica, Israel, and the aforementioned Cuba, but they’re not exactly basketball powerhouses. The roster does not have a single player born in the 90’s (by comparison, Canada has 10), nor does it include anybody playing in the NBA, NBDL, or even Europe.
Arguably their best player is Gyno Pomare, who went undrafted and whose career highlight was leading the University of San Diego to a first round upset over Connecticut in 2008. The Panamanians will be hard-pressed to make it out of the group stage.
Next: Venezuela