France vs. Spain: Is Tony Parker Really France's Most Important Player?

As the French national basketball team prepares for its opening game of Olympic medal-round play against Spain, most feel the key player to a France upset is point guard Tony Parker.

And, usually, they would be right.

As the team's point guard, Parker is not only the player who sets up the French offense, but sometimes serves as the team's only offensive spark plug. In preliminary-round action, Parker led the team in scoring in three of its four wins, including a virtuoso 27-point performance in France's 82-74 victory over Lithuania.

But that level of consistent brilliance is exactly what makes the San Antonio Spurs point guard France's best but not most important player.

The French team knows what it's getting from Parker, but not so much for the role players surrounding the 30-year-old guard.

And with France coming into their matchup against Spain as 6.5-point underdogs (via Bovada.lv), they will need certain role players to step up so their country gets a second medal-round game in London. 

With that in mind, here's a look at France's three most meaningful players against Spain and going forward.

Boris Diaw

Diaw will be especially important against Spain as the French team looks to negate the overwhelming strength of Spain's big men.

The Spurs power forward's main goal for France will be keeping the Spanish bigs out of the painted area by stretching them out to the three-point line. Diaw's versatility comes in huge here for France, as he can play either forward spot and could even slide into center if needed.

But the 30-year-old will need to show a semblance of offensive aggression if he hopes to serve as a decoy against the Gasol brothers or Serge Ibaka. So far in London, Diaw has averaged just 6.8 points per game and went France's entire game against Tunisia without taking a shot.

France will need Diaw to at least match his Olympic-high 10-point performance against to even have a shot of moving forward.

Kevin Seraphin

Like Diaw, most of Seraphin's importance comes from helping negate the affect of Spain's powerful big men.

But also, if the 22-year-old Seraphin can step up his game in elimination play, it could help reduce France's reliance on Ronny Turiaf.

While Turiaf was fine at the center spot in France's run through Group A, he's an undersized 5-man who often has to overcompensate with hustle. If the 6'10", 275-pound Seraphin can eradicate some of his foul trouble and become a consistent defensive presence in the middle for France, the team could move Turiaf to the bench to back up Diaw at his natural power forward position.

If Seraphin fails, well, we've seen over the past few years how well Turiaf handles NBA-level big men.

Nicolas Batum

Batum has been France's second-leading scorer so far in London, but he will need to step up his aggressiveness as teams key on Parker.

The 23-year-old small forward has taken over 10 shots in a game just twice in these Olympic Games, which would be fine if he wasn't shooting the ball at a 60.4 percent clip.

Considering France will be at a talent disparity against nearly every team left in London, Batum's teammates will need him to start taking between 12 and 15 shots per game if they hope to advance.

If Batum ramps up the offensive aggressiveness and his shots keep dropping, there's no reason why a Parker-Batum dynamic duo couldn't hoist France straight to a gold-medal rematch against the United States, or whomever comes out of that side of the bracket.