AMSTERDAM (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Pre-Qualifiers) - For Netherlands to keep on improving, the answer, coach Toon van Helfteren believes, is for players to look abroad.

Remember what happened on the opening day of FIBA EuroBasket 2015 in Zagreb when the Dutch got their first win in their first EuroBasket since 1987, when Van Helfteren was a player? They beat Georgia.

The Dutch last summer narrowly missed out on clinching a second-straight FIBA EuroBasket appearance yet will get a chance to show off their quality and determination in August when they play four games in the FIBA Basketball World Cup European Pre-Qualifiers against Albania and Austria.

A top-two finish would see Van Helfteren's side join the 32-team World Cup Qualifiers field and those games will start to be played in November.

Having initially announced a 24-man list for the Pre-Qualifiers, the Netherlands reduced that to 15 earlier this month. The majority of those still involved are members of the side from the past two years, including Charlon Kloof, Worthy de Jong, Arvin Slagter, Roeland Schaftenaar, Nicolas de Jong and Henk Norel.

As part of their preparations for the Pre-Qualifiers, the Netherlands will host Sweden on July 15 in Den Helder and again the following day in Weert. Sweden are also playing in the Pre-Qualifiers.

The Netherlands will also play in a four-nations tournament in Skopje, in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (MKD), July 22-24, with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal and MKD, and then take part in the Trentino Basket Cup in Italy July 29-30.

The team's first World Cup Pre-Qualifiers game will be in Austria on August 5. The Dutch will host Albania four days later. Then on August 16, Van Helfteren's side will be at home to Austria. The last Pre-Qualifier will be at Albania on August 19. 

Van Helfteren, meanwhile, has spoken to fiba.basketball about his hopes that the Netherlands can improve and take the next step.

The three-guard lineup helped us to speed up the game on the offensive end and gave us a lot of transition baskets. But at the same time, we had more of a threat from the outside.Van HelfterenVan Helfteren

"We've focused on defense because that is the first priority to being competitive," the coach said. "I believe in the past years when I have been coaching, we were successful in doing that.

"We want to play defense, rebound the basketball and get as many possessions as possible. Now, after having accomplished that - and we have to keep accomplishing that - we're looking to be a little better on the offensive end.

"Having more and more players playing in European leagues is going to help us, obviously. The goal is to be able to get more and more players to play abroad, which will help the national team eventually."

The explosive Kloof is crucial for the Netherlands' chances

Van Helfteren, because of the players at his disposal, chose to employ different tactics last year in the FIBA EuroBasket 2017 qualifying campaign.

"Now last year, we tried to play a different style of offensive basketball because the small forward position is a difficult one for us to fill at the moment in Holland," he said. "We had Kees Akerboom for years but he retired from the national team so what you saw last summer was that every game, we played with three guards on the court. We do have the bigs, everyone knows that.

"The three-guard lineup helped us to speed up the game on the offensive end and gave us a lot of transition baskets. But at the same time, we had more of a threat from the outside."

Van Helfteren says that the Dutch need to really work hard with their perimeter game.

"Kees was the last real shooter we had in Holland," he said. "We're really lacking the guy that can shoot the basketball, like so many other countries have guys that can hit the 3-point shot, (positions) one through four.

"For us, it's something we still have to look for. But that definitely takes time to develop."

Going with a three-guard line-up, one might think, would make the Dutch vulnerable on defense and lead to taller players posting them up.

"If you look at the last campaign, it did not, until the last game against Germany and they butchered us one through five," Van Helfteren said.

"But having the small lineup enabled us to win three in a row. We won in Denmark, in Germany and in Austria, so playing a three-guard lineup didn't hurt us until the last game.

"We handled mismatches, post-up situations and we were in position to be number one in the qualifying group, which I don't recall for Holland being in.

"Unfortunately, that last game, we didn't succeed but again, it wasn't just the small forward position. Germany showed us they had the more experienced players. Paul Zipser is in the NBA, guys in the EuroLeague. But we'll keep working."

FIBA