Twelve players have been confirmed for the event in Australia, where the Kiwis will play in the seeded Pool A.

Derone Raukawa, Shea Ili, Jarrod Kenny, Reuben Te Rangi, Ethan Rusbatch, Jordan Ngatai, Tom Abercrombie, Finn Delany, Mika Vukona, Tohi Smith-Milner, Rob Loe and Alex Pledger have all been confirmed for Gold Coast.

"While some of this group are younger in years, they have all benefitted from recent international basketball, through the 2017 Asia Cup when we took a very inexperienced team away, to recent New Zealand Select tours to China, and of course many were involved in recent World Cup qualifying windows," said head coach Paul Henare.

"Guys like Ethan, Derone and Tohi are young but bring the experience of that Asia Cup campaign to every team they play for, while others such as Shea, Finn, Jordan and our captain Reuben all benefited hugely from that experience and have a great understanding of the pressure they will face in the next few weeks." 

New Zealand will play hosts Australia, Canada and Nigeria in the seeded pool.

The top two sides will qualify for the semi-finals outright, with the bottom two facing a play-off against a top two side from the unseeded pool for the right to earn a spot in the last four.

Gold Coast 2018 opens on April 4.