Lavey's selection in a new-look Opals squad surprised many in the basketball community, given the 21-year-old has filled bench roles in her initial WNBL seasons with Canberra Capitals and Bendigo Spirit.

Joyce said Lavey provides the quickness to match the European teams, and provides a "point of difference" to the seasoned point guards Leilani Mitchell and Erin Phillips.

Hurst, 31, looked on track for world championship selection when she played as Australia's starting point guard in the Oceania championships against New Zealand earlier this year.

"Her [Lavey's] quickness and explosiveness is superior to all three of those players [Mitchell, Phillips and Hurst]," Joyce said.

"That's a big statement, I know, but we've had plenty of camps and plenty of tour games to see it.

"We need someone with that sort of quickness in our team, in that position.

"She brings a point of different to the other girls. The second point is we have to blood a young point guard for the future because of the age of our existing point guards, and she's the best young guard in the country."

"I don't think she should be a bench player in the WNBL. She's a bench player in the team [Bendigo] that's won it the last two years behind Kristi Harrower, who has been our greatest ever point guard.

Joyce said he informed Hurst of his decision early last week.

"I spoke to her about it face-to-face and we hugged at the end," he said.

"I think everybody knows how much our coaching staff thinks of Nat and it was a really tough decision, she's been with us since Oceania.

"I went down [to Melbourne] to speak to [fellow overlooked player] Tess Madgen a couple of days later to let her know.

"With the girls that didn't make it I wanted to see them face to face so they get a sincere message."

Joyce insisted he's not feeling the pressure of returning from Turkey with a medal after the Opals failed to win a medal at a major event for the first time since 1994.

It will only be heightened after men's team the Boomers were eliminated by Turkey in the round of 16 at their world cup.

Australia will be without Lauren Jackson through injury, Harrower has retired while key players Jenna O'Hea and Suzy Batkovic didn't compete in enough training camps to be eligible for selection.

"If you don't like pressure you shouldn't be doing it. I've been in this game a long time because I love it, but I think I love the pressure," he said.

"We can't replace her [Jackson]  and it's the same with Harrower, we have to do it collectively as a group.

"The girls who have made themselves available, I think we've picked a pretty good team.

"We've got six new players, and it was always going to be a transitional period for us.

"But we're not trying to take a step back, we want to maintain the success of the Opals."

The Opals leave for Turkey on Sunday.