The biggest tournament for European basketball, EuroBasket, tips off Thursday in four different countries. This year marks the start of a new schedule for the event, which will now see EuroBasket occur every four years instead of every two years.

Spain won EuroBasket 2015 for its third tournament win in four chances, but it wasn't easy. The Spanish only won three of their five games in group play and weren't dominant in the tournament, either.

Unfortunately, several stars from around the continent will not play for their countries this year, including Giannis Antetokounmpo of Greece and Nikola Jokic and Milos Teodosic of Serbia.

But the tournament, which features 24 countries divided into four groups, should still feature high levels of basketball. Let's preview the event's schedule, including how to watch games, then acknowledge some notable players and pick the tournament favorites.

EuroBasket 2017 Information

Dates: August 31-September 17

Locations: Helsinki, Finland, Tel Aviv, Israel, Cluj-Napoca, Romania and Istanbul, Turkey

Live Stream: LiveBasketball.TV / FIBA.com

Draw: Below is the complete draw ceremony for EuroBasket 2017, which was held November 22 of last year. Skip to the 1:22:30 mark of the video to see the draw for the group play stage of the tournament.

Which Teams Are the Favorites?

Spain

The Spain team is the heavy favorite to win this tournament for the fourth time since 2009. With the Gasol brothers (Pau and Marc) and the Hernangomez brothers (Willy and Juancho) manning the interior and skilled guards like Ricky Rubio and Sergio Rodriguez making plays, this team has all the talent it needs to dominate its competition.

Barring significant injuries, Spain's squad will be too skilled on the outside and especially the inside for anyone to contend with it.

France

France has finished in the top three at the past three EuroBaskets, including a first-place finish in 2013. They should have a great chance at doing so again, but it won't be easy. Rudy Gobert and Nicolas Batum aren't participating this year, and Tony Parker has now retired from international play.

Serbia

It was a tough decision for this final spot between Lithuania and Serbia. In the end, the Serbia squad's recent experience winning on the international stage won out—remember, the country placed second to the United States at the 2016 Summer Olympics at Rio.

Serbia will be without Jokic, its young star center, a ball-handling wizard in Teodosic and explosive shooting guard Nemanja Nedovic for this year's EuroBasket. However, a lethal outside-inside combination of Bogdan Bogdanovic and Boban Marjanovic should be enough to help the Serbs place well.

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