Australian coach Andrej Lemanis believes the NBL All-Australian team's tour of China could help players who are contending for Rio Olympic positions.
Lemanis will coach a team of the NBL's best Australian players against the Chinese national team, who are also trialling players for their Olympic side. 
The three-game series is expected to reach up to a billion Chinese television viewers with the games to be broadcast live by state channel CCTV5 and in Australia on Fox Sports.
The NBL will also use the tour to build their Chinese and Asian ties as they aim to add some south-east Asian sides in future seasons.
NBL-based Boomers squad members Adam Gibson, Daniel Kickert, Mitch Norton, Todd Blanchfield, Clint Steindl and Lucas Walker are all in the side and will get the chance to work with Lemanis before the national team's official preparations start in   June once the NBA season is finished.
"For some players their motivation for being here is to put themselves in front of the national coach and have a shot of making the national team by showing me what they can do," Lemanis said.
"It will be great to see what they do on the international stage and, as we know, international basketball is different to what you see in the NBL.
"From a team perspective you don't necessarily take the 12 most skilled players, you take the 12 best players to form a team and sometimes a player will fill a specific role which the other 11 are missing.
"Someone just might come out of this tour showing just what skill they bring to the group."
This tour is the first time the NBL has sent a league-wide team to China while many clubs have sent their teams for past off-season tours.
But it will be a major physical and mental challenge for the NBL players to bounce out of their off-season and battle with China's best players.
"I think the Chinese team is really playing at a good intensity level and the guys who will be playing will be playing for their lives in terms of Olympic selection," Lemanis said.
"So you will get a team who is playing very desperately and every possession will be flat out and frantic at times as well."
Lemanis hasn't had the chance to coach many live games this year and with the Olympic campaign fast approaching, he said the three China games plus the training sessions were invaluable for his own preparations.
As former coach of Australian teams at World University Games and other Emerging Boomers teams, Lemanis has coached almost every player in the side.
Melbourne United has Todd Blanchfield, Majok Majok, Daniel Kickert and David Barlow from last season's roster in the touring team with Kickert leaving for Brisbane Bullets next season.
Blanchfield said it was an honour to represent his league and country.
"It's great we have this opportunity and to work with Andrej as well," Blanchfield said. "It [the Olympic team] sits in the back of your mind but we want to play hard, compete and be successful."
Fox Sports will show all three tour games live on Friday, Sunday and Tuesday from 9.30pm.