Cool to see one of our former guys get such a detailed look. Since paywalled, here you go (missing clips, sorry)
*Take Goga Bitadze, for instance. Picked up by the Orlando Magic as an afterthought third center after the Indiana Pacers waived him in February, nobody thought much of it when the Magic picked up his team option on a minimum contract in the offseason. Even after that point, he easily could have come a roster casualty if the Magic found an alternate use for their ample cap space.*
*The spindly legged, 6-foot-11 Georgian’s importance to the Magic wasn’t apparent until starting center Wendell Carter Jr. broke his finger in October. Magic coach Jamahl Mosley promoted Bitadze to the starting lineup, and the team thrived. Orlando went 13-7 in Bitadze’s 20 starts entering Wednesday’s loss to Miami — Carter’s first game back — including a nine-game winning streak in late November. Bitadze’s shot blocking, rebounding and improv play from the elbows played a central role as the Magic, who won just 34 games a year ago, have been one of 2023-24’s biggest surprises.*
*For a Magic team ranked third in points allowed per 100 possessions, Bitadze’s rim protection has stood out. His 7.3 percent block rate is fourth in the league! Get that weak floater outta here, Haywood Highsmith:*
*What’s made Bitadze’s defense more impressive is that he isn’t thriving exclusively from drop coverages. He has the feet to chase on the perimeter. Watch here, for instance, as a well-designed Cleveland play leaves Bitadze on an island against Darius Garland. The Cavaliers’ All-Star guard has the entire left side of the floor at his disposal and he thinks he’s going to cook. Guess again:*
*At the offensive end, Bitadze has made a major transition. He’s morphed from a theoretical stretch five into a very real board-crasher, ranking ninth in the league in offensive rebound rate and converting 32 dunks in 24 games.*
*Beyond rim running, Bitadze has also become a canny operator from the elbows, helping a spacing-starved Orlando offense find tiny creases to attack the paint. Bitadze is averaging 4.0 assists per 100 possessions and more than two dimes for every turnover, a nice supplemental skill for a fifth option. Note below how Bitadze rescues a dead play for Jalen Suggs by improvising a quick give-and-go that lets his teammate get a half-step to the rim:*
*Bitadze’s role is a big change from 10 months ago, when the Pacers waived him to create roster space to absorb Serge Ibaka’s contract in a salary dump from Milwaukee. A first-round pick for the Pacers in 2019, Bitadze struggled to gain traction in a crowded frontcourt and became expendable due to Indy’s surfeit of bigs. Complicating matters was his inability to turn a smooth-looking stroke from the perimeter into threatening results in games, as he converted just 25.6 percent of his 3s in 215 attempts as a Pacer. Scouts I talked to had him rated as a late lottery pick in 2019 largely based on his potential stretch game, but that never developed as hoped.*
*Bitadze, however, flipped the script when he landed in Orlando. He hardly ever shoots 3s any more — he’s only taken five all season. Instead, he’s feasting around the basket and blowing away his previous career high with 63.2 percent true shooting.*
*“It was a small conversation, but it was more him realizing how he could fit to be part of this group,” ” Mosley said. “… He realized, ‘It may not be my time to shoot the 3, let me go do a dribble handoff with Paolo [Banchero] or Franz [Wagner].’”*
*Carter is back, so Bitadze may return to a more limited role. Mosley chatted with him before Wednesday morning’s shootaround in preparation for that and noted how impressed he was with Bitadze’s team-first nature. When a player joins your program midseason, as Bitadze did in 2022-23, you don’t necessarily know what you’ll get behind the scenes.*
*“What hasn’t change since the moment he stepped run this building is his work ethic,” Mosley said. “His work ethic is incredible. He’s got such a tremendous care factor for his teammates and selflessness about him that you can’t see from afar, You can’t ask for a better teammate.”*
*“(Mosley) trusted me, and we’ve had this respect for each other since I got here,” said Bitadze, who also credited an offseason with the Georgian national team at the FIBA World Cup for helping him hit the ground running this season. “You get waived, you don’t expect people to look at you like that. But since day one, they showed me love. All I really had to do was put the work in.”*
*He’s been good enough that the conversation has flipped into a question of whether Orlando can keep him. Bitadze is a free agent this summer coming off a minimum contract at age 24, and Orlando will have early Bird rights on him.*
*As a result, Bitadze is my No. 1 stocking-stuffer for this holiday season. Here’s the rest of my All-Stocking Stuffer Team, commemorating players who were already there on the roster and whose teams discovered them in-season as an extra holiday gift. (Stats are through Wednesday’s games.)*
Real_Razzmatazz_7290
Glad to see goga thriving , I could tell from his time with us he wasn’t just a scrub and had flashes of a solid big man, just wasn’t a fit for what we had going these past couple years. Hopefully he can maintain this and carve out a good carer
theconmeister
I think Poole and Keldon Johnson are the only realistic guys we could’ve taken instead that would’ve been better, not a great draft. I think KJ made a lot of sense (and posted about him pre draft in here) but he’s at least starting to look like he won’t be a huge difference maker or anything, below league average efficiency. Nesmith’s a dog with great efficiency. Poole probably wouldn’t have broken out here.
Shame Goga never got a role carved out, seemed doomed to happen the day we drafted him. He showed talent, glad he’s getting to showcase it and have consistency with opportunity.
3 Comments
Cool to see one of our former guys get such a detailed look. Since paywalled, here you go (missing clips, sorry)
*Take Goga Bitadze, for instance. Picked up by the Orlando Magic as an afterthought third center after the Indiana Pacers waived him in February, nobody thought much of it when the Magic picked up his team option on a minimum contract in the offseason. Even after that point, he easily could have come a roster casualty if the Magic found an alternate use for their ample cap space.*
*The spindly legged, 6-foot-11 Georgian’s importance to the Magic wasn’t apparent until starting center Wendell Carter Jr. broke his finger in October. Magic coach Jamahl Mosley promoted Bitadze to the starting lineup, and the team thrived. Orlando went 13-7 in Bitadze’s 20 starts entering Wednesday’s loss to Miami — Carter’s first game back — including a nine-game winning streak in late November. Bitadze’s shot blocking, rebounding and improv play from the elbows played a central role as the Magic, who won just 34 games a year ago, have been one of 2023-24’s biggest surprises.*
*For a Magic team ranked third in points allowed per 100 possessions, Bitadze’s rim protection has stood out. His 7.3 percent block rate is fourth in the league! Get that weak floater outta here, Haywood Highsmith:*
*What’s made Bitadze’s defense more impressive is that he isn’t thriving exclusively from drop coverages. He has the feet to chase on the perimeter. Watch here, for instance, as a well-designed Cleveland play leaves Bitadze on an island against Darius Garland. The Cavaliers’ All-Star guard has the entire left side of the floor at his disposal and he thinks he’s going to cook. Guess again:*
*At the offensive end, Bitadze has made a major transition. He’s morphed from a theoretical stretch five into a very real board-crasher, ranking ninth in the league in offensive rebound rate and converting 32 dunks in 24 games.*
*Beyond rim running, Bitadze has also become a canny operator from the elbows, helping a spacing-starved Orlando offense find tiny creases to attack the paint. Bitadze is averaging 4.0 assists per 100 possessions and more than two dimes for every turnover, a nice supplemental skill for a fifth option. Note below how Bitadze rescues a dead play for Jalen Suggs by improvising a quick give-and-go that lets his teammate get a half-step to the rim:*
*Bitadze’s role is a big change from 10 months ago, when the Pacers waived him to create roster space to absorb Serge Ibaka’s contract in a salary dump from Milwaukee. A first-round pick for the Pacers in 2019, Bitadze struggled to gain traction in a crowded frontcourt and became expendable due to Indy’s surfeit of bigs. Complicating matters was his inability to turn a smooth-looking stroke from the perimeter into threatening results in games, as he converted just 25.6 percent of his 3s in 215 attempts as a Pacer. Scouts I talked to had him rated as a late lottery pick in 2019 largely based on his potential stretch game, but that never developed as hoped.*
*Bitadze, however, flipped the script when he landed in Orlando. He hardly ever shoots 3s any more — he’s only taken five all season. Instead, he’s feasting around the basket and blowing away his previous career high with 63.2 percent true shooting.*
*“It was a small conversation, but it was more him realizing how he could fit to be part of this group,” ” Mosley said. “… He realized, ‘It may not be my time to shoot the 3, let me go do a dribble handoff with Paolo [Banchero] or Franz [Wagner].’”*
*Carter is back, so Bitadze may return to a more limited role. Mosley chatted with him before Wednesday morning’s shootaround in preparation for that and noted how impressed he was with Bitadze’s team-first nature. When a player joins your program midseason, as Bitadze did in 2022-23, you don’t necessarily know what you’ll get behind the scenes.*
*“What hasn’t change since the moment he stepped run this building is his work ethic,” Mosley said. “His work ethic is incredible. He’s got such a tremendous care factor for his teammates and selflessness about him that you can’t see from afar, You can’t ask for a better teammate.”*
*“(Mosley) trusted me, and we’ve had this respect for each other since I got here,” said Bitadze, who also credited an offseason with the Georgian national team at the FIBA World Cup for helping him hit the ground running this season. “You get waived, you don’t expect people to look at you like that. But since day one, they showed me love. All I really had to do was put the work in.”*
*He’s been good enough that the conversation has flipped into a question of whether Orlando can keep him. Bitadze is a free agent this summer coming off a minimum contract at age 24, and Orlando will have early Bird rights on him.*
*As a result, Bitadze is my No. 1 stocking-stuffer for this holiday season. Here’s the rest of my All-Stocking Stuffer Team, commemorating players who were already there on the roster and whose teams discovered them in-season as an extra holiday gift. (Stats are through Wednesday’s games.)*
Glad to see goga thriving , I could tell from his time with us he wasn’t just a scrub and had flashes of a solid big man, just wasn’t a fit for what we had going these past couple years. Hopefully he can maintain this and carve out a good carer
I think Poole and Keldon Johnson are the only realistic guys we could’ve taken instead that would’ve been better, not a great draft. I think KJ made a lot of sense (and posted about him pre draft in here) but he’s at least starting to look like he won’t be a huge difference maker or anything, below league average efficiency. Nesmith’s a dog with great efficiency. Poole probably wouldn’t have broken out here.
Shame Goga never got a role carved out, seemed doomed to happen the day we drafted him. He showed talent, glad he’s getting to showcase it and have consistency with opportunity.