The Russian national basketball coach is yet to decide which twelve players to take to China for the Beijing Olympics next month. David Blatt should have a clearer picture after the Mechel Cup, which will take place in Moscow at the end of July.

The current European champions have only a month left before stepping on court at the Olympic Games in Beijing, but the Mechel Cup should give them the perfect warm-up. Russia's opponents in the competition will be Serbia, Ukraine and Latvia.

At the group stage in the Olympics, Russia's opponents include Argentina, Lithuania, Australia, Iran and another qualifier to be decided after July 20.

The president of the Russian Basketball Federation has set the goal of reaching the semi-finals of the Olympics. The head coach however is focused on the group stage and thinks it's a bit premature to look beyond that at this point.

“The first thing we have to think about is getting out of the group. But there won’t be a lot of easy games at the Olympics and we are preparing ourselves for this,” David Blatt said.  

The NBA’s Most Valuable Player, Utah Jazz forward Andrey Kirilenko, is among 11 players called to a training camp ahead of the games.  He’s expected to lead the Russian attack as usual.

And there is a new star on the horizon – University of Kansas ace, Aleksandr Kaun, is earmarked for the point guard position.