Vrankovic (president of the Croatian Basketball Federation) and Petrovic the coach of the NT got pretty mad with the players who rejected or partly accepted the invitations to the NT
I can't find an English text but between the lines they said that they can't accept players who say i can't come today but i will be available in a few days. It is not fair to the other players.
I google translated and edited a Croatian page on this.
After Žižić, Zubac and Hossein the fourth absence for Croatia is Miro Bilan.
"He (Bilan) told me he is dissatisfied because he has no club, he would not like to risk an injury and was not mentally prepared. It was immediately clear to me where this was headed, said [...] Aco Petrović and added: - I can say that he has not cancel;ed the performance, but I have withdrawn my invitation to him. If someone is not mentally prepared, he can not play.
https://www.vecernji.hr/sport/aco-petrovic-hrvatska-miro-bilan-eurobasket-vrankovic-kosarka-1184856
Androslav is that any good?
Vranković, Dino Rađa (both NT executives) and Toni Kukoc (with more of advisory role) got "mad" at Zubac, Žižić as they don't relish at every chance of playing for the NT squad. However, I vividly remember the time, 20 years ago, when they skiped numerous competitions. Now they seem to hold this double standard. I understand their frustration, as they want the best possible lineups to be avalible, but it sounds a bit corny to me.
Dino is also, unfortunately, still operating under the assumption that the best basketball was played during his time. I couldn't disagree more. My question to him would be why don't you use a 20 year old cell phone or why don't you drive an SUV from 1994?
Exactly, they are plainly worse than the contemporary models.
Bilan is a slow moving (I mean like mud slow) with no explotion whatsoever, he is a relatively skilled post player (left/right hook, nice footwork), good soldier in general, fighter, but clearly he is not a cerebral type of a player. He has an effective Adriatic league game but it doesn't translate to International play that well. We are stacked at the center position in the future so he probably won't be comming back for the 2019 WC (hunch). ATM, my take is that Darko Planinić will cover the majority of center minutes. He was surprisingly effective at Rio Olympics. In short, he is a very good rebounder, always boxes out, good hands, solid FT rate and %, he can hit an ocasional mid ranger, but most importantly a guy that won't mind doing the dirty work under the rim. I think he is an underated player. I like his positive and competitive demeanor.