GogaBit Processor

[eyriq]

Player A per 36: 14.1 pts-12.3 rpg-2.4 blks-1.3 stls-3.6 apg 3.6 fouls, 2.2 to, TS 64.5% DRTG 102, ORTG 120.. making 8 mill/yr
Player B per 36: 14.6 pts- 14.5 rpg-1.5 blks-1.0 stls-5 apg 3.6 fouls, 2.2 to, TS 58.8% DRTG 99, ORTG 120...making 29 mill/yr



Player A is Goga, player B is Hartenstein. Not saying Goga is better, just glad to have him on the team.

That's a beautiful thing right there.

[Skybox]

Player A per 36: 14.1 pts-12.3 rpg-2.4 blks-1.3 stls-3.6 apg 3.6 fouls, 2.2 to, TS 64.5% DRTG 102, ORTG 120.. making 8 mill/yr
Player B per 36: 14.6 pts- 14.5 rpg-1.5 blks-1.0 stls-5 apg 3.6 fouls, 2.2 to, TS 58.8% DRTG 99, ORTG 120...making 29 mill/yr



Player A is Goga, player B is Hartenstein. Not saying Goga is better, just glad to have him on the team.

$29m for Hartenstein is clearly in the "right place right time" category...like Bruce Brown fell into.

[jezzerinho]

Article on Goga in Spanish media (Google translated.out of laziness on my part - it's pretty long!). Not much on the Magic but a nice insight into the big Georgian.

Part 1:

Goga Bitadze, the emerging center who hated basketball and grew up admiring Pau Gasol

NBA / MD REPORT

Goga Bitadze is one of the young NBA centers who is making a strong impact after growing up admiring Pau Gasol

The 25-year-old Georgia center is the anchor in the paint of a young Orlando Magic that promises to be in the fight for the ring in the coming seasons

Bitadze was trained in the same school as Nikola Jokic, that of Mega, and was the Best Young Star of the Euroleague in 2019.

Goga Bitadze (Sagarejo, Georgia, 20-7-1999), anchor of the emerging Orlando Magic as a starting center, hated basketball when he was 6 years old, fed up with his coach pushing him in training. But, as a paradigm of what they say about how there is a step from hate to love, he learned to love it. He had to do it, seeing that he could give a better life to his family, direct testimony of the exhausting 14 hours that his mother and aunt spent working every day in the supermarket as Luke Scotchie explains in Orlando Magic HQ. Today, he earns 9 million a year.

“It came naturally. When I was 15 I wasn’t good, but before that no kid likes to run, you know, being punished, running and all that. So I just wanted to be out there with my friends. After that, little by little, I realized that I could make a living from it and I could help my family and friends,” the 25-year-old center, drafted 18th in 2019 by the Pacers, who cut him in February 2023 to sign with the Magic team led by Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, reflects in conversation with MD.

“So little by little, I made the transition and now it's like natural. I'm in the best league,” adds the center, who working with him since he was a child helped him to become what he is today, a starting center in the NBA and probably the one who should be talked about more than the Magic team, who will be much talked about in the coming years.

[jezzerinho]

Part 2

“I sold watermelons with my father and uncle and I ate grapes at a small stand. I was really young, I was like six or seven years old and yes, I did a lot. I didn’t actually work in the supermarket, but I just sold fruit and stuff and that was fun sometimes,” says the Georgian, inspired in his childhood by Pau Gasol, as he grew up admiring the player from Sant Boi. Although he admits that it is not so easy to imitate him.

“It is difficult to copy his game, he was a legend. He is a legend here and in Europe too, so it is difficult to model your game. But I saw him the same as Marc Gasol,” says Bitadze, who is close to a double-double on average this season with 9.6 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 24.6 minutes with 62% shooting from the field. With his repertoire becoming more and more versatile, the Gasol brothers are a great reference for the Georgian, especially right now, in terms of the progressive development of a consistent outside shot in the era of the three-pointer, something that Bitadze does not have right now.

But the center can perfectly master that skill, taking into account the prodigious and prolific school in which he was molded after his time at VITA Tibilisi, the Mega Basket of Belgrade, where the best player in the world and reigning three-time MVP Nikola Jokic was forged, although the Joker is just the tip of the iceberg, as the Serbian club has also seen others leave for the NBA, such as Ivica Zubac (Los Angeles Clippers), Nikola Jovic (Miami Heat), Euroleague MVP Vasilije Micic (Charlotte Hornets) and Vlatko Cancar, Jokic's teammate at the Nuggets and formerly of San Pablo Burgos.

Nikola Topic, who played on loan for a season at Mega for Red Star and was chosen in the last draft by the Oklahoma City Thunder, although he has not yet made his NBA debut due to a serious knee injury, was also named Best Young Player of the Euroleague with the Serbian club in 2019.

[jezzerinho]

Part 3:

“The secret of Mega? Misko Raznatovic. If you know who he is, that’s the secret, that’s the guy. And also, rest in peace, Milojevic, who recently passed away,” Bitadze said, highlighting the famous Serbian agent, who discovered Jokic, and Dejan Milojevic, who trained at Mega for eight years (2012-2020) being key in the development of players and died last year from a heart attack when he was an assistant coach at the Golden State Warriors. Milojevic was also well known in the ACB league, having played for two years at Pamesa Valencia (2006-2008) during his time as a player.

“He (Milojevic) raised all of us except Nikola Jovic and Topic. He raised Jokic, Zubac and me, great guys. So thanks to Deki (Milojevic's nickname), may he rest in peace, he's a great guy. There are two people there, Misko Raznatovic and Dejan Milojevic. Honestly, it's them,” Bitadze stressed, who also spoke about his relationship with Nikola Jokic.

“We're from the same team and the same agent, Misko (Raznatovic). We're really close to Misko, he's like family to us. During the games we don't see each other, he's very busy, he's the best player in the league. I'd love to ask him to go to dinner or something, but I'm sure he has a lot of things to do, he doesn't have much for me. But we get along well,” the Georgian midfielder explained about his bond with the Joker.

But, in that constant progression that has granted Bitadze the privilege of being a starter in a playoff candidate, Nikola Jokic -with his incessant evolution-, is not the only example to follow for the Mega for the Georgian, since Ivica Zubac is another of the NBA centers who has evolved the most. The 27-year-old Croatian has made a great leap in his game this season with the Clippers in every sense, going from averaging 11.7 points, 9 rebounds and 1.4 assists to 15 points, 12.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists.

[jezzerinho]

Part 4

One of the most dominant centers in the NBA, Anthony Davis, praised Zubac's progress - especially in his post game - after the Croatian's double-double of 21 points and 19 rebounds in the Clippers' victory over the Lakers in the last Los Angeles derby.

Goga Bitadze's arrival in the best league in the world in 2019 was noisy but silent, achieving, paradoxically, fame from anonymity. Selected 18th in the draft by the Indiana Pacers, the Georgian center went to sit in the press room next to the table of Zion Williamson, the brand new number 1 chosen by the New Orleans Pelicans. In images that went viral, a cloud of journalists entertained Williamson with questions while Bitadze, like the one holding the candle on a date, remained alone at the side without a single reporter who was interested in him.

The Georgian tells his own version of events.

“Honestly, I didn’t care,” says Bitadze, referring to a tender young man who had not even turned 20 but landed in America with the respectable status of having been the Best Young Player of the Euroleague.

“He was one of the best prospects in High School and, honestly, I was asked questions. It was just the end that everyone went to him, but people gave it a lot of importance,” adds the center, who was not bothered by that fact and, much less, to use it as motivation.

“I received a lot of support, but it’s not like it gave me motivation, I already had enough motivation before, but, you know, it’s still a good picture. Someone thinks I was sad or something, but even if nobody asked me a question, it’s okay. "I can go now, I have more time to rest, train, it's just another American thing," Goga Bitadze also said in a very 'Jokic' response, because for the Nuggets star, the less media attention, the better.

The Euroleague, better than the NBA in some aspects

Bitadze is another example that arriving at the NBA as a young player seasoned in the Euroleague is an advantage and facilitates the progress and development of players from the Old Continent in the best league in the world. And although there is no discussion that the NBA is still the best basketball competition in the world, the Georgian is clear that the Euroleague surpasses the NBA in some ways.

"The Euroleague public is better, it is more passionate"

Bitadze, on the NBA - Euroleague comparison

"Is the Euroleague better than the NBA in some aspects? Yes, definitely. The strategy. The defense is different, and there is more space, how to say it, it is a tougher place. The public is obviously much better. “I have to be honest, I have played against Red Star, I have played against Panathinaikos, Olympiakos, it is different. I mean, you are here, I watched the games, it is all passion, it is more passion. It is more physical. I love watching the Euroleague. I don’t watch it anymore, but if I had to choose between the Euroleague and the NBA, I would definitely choose the Euroleague, any game,” argued Bitadze in an explanation full of sincerity.

[jezzerinho]

Final part:

The center gave a similar opinion to Luka Doncic, who said that he watched more Euroleague games than the NBA. Giannis Antetokounmpo also spoke out in favor of the Euroleague, saying that the game in Europe “is much tougher” than in the NBA due to the greater physical contact allowed, an opinion that Doncic and Jokic also expressed at the time. Anteto has also recently praised the more intense atmosphere on the courts of the Euroleague, which Bitadze refers to.

Georgia, a growing power in basketball

Goga Bitadze, with his rising role in the NBA, is another exponent of the emerging Georgian basketball, with Sandro Mamukelashvili, in Victor Wembanyama's San Antonio Spurs. But the Spanish domestic ACB league also knows a lot about Georgian basketball, with another paradigmatic case such as that of an MVP like Gio Shermadini (Lenovo Tenerife) and another illustrious player of the Spanish league like Beka Burjanadze, in Leyma Coruña and previously in other clubs such as Betis, Andorra and Gran Canaria.

Tornike Shengelia is another well-known ACB player with European cachet - currently in Italy's Virtus Bologna - as well as an NBA past player in Zaza Pachulia, the first player born in Georgia to be champion of the best league in the world with the Golden State Warriors in 2017 and today an executive in the franchise in the Bay. The last World Cup in 2023 was the first in which the Georgian national team participated.

“What is Georgia's secret? Honestly, I don't know. I guess we are hard workers, we like to work and the federation has been doing a better job with courts and equipment and all that to be able to work. I think Toko (Shengelia) and Gio (Shermadini) are hard-working guys, and there are other guys like Burjanadze who also plays in Spain. We are people who work hard, we fight, we don’t give up and we have our toughness,” Bitadze said.

However, the political and social situation is not as rosy as the basketball situation, as Georgia has recently seen protests on the streets against the current government led by Mikheil Kavelashvili, accused of being close to Russia and Vladimir Putin and whose decision to postpone its entry into the European Union until 2028 has raised social unrest. In addition, the current political party in power since 2012, Georgian Dream, has been accused of winning the October elections thanks to electoral fraud.

Bitadze gave his opinion:

“You can say that people have the ability to express themselves, so I think it is a free country. It is difficult to be a small country and have that freedom. People have a different view of politics. I don’t know, my job is to play basketball, I’m against any kind of violence and, obviously, I stick to my job, that’s what I know. I like politics, but I’m against violence,” reflected Goga Bitadze, one of the emerging giants of the NBA. It couldn’t be any other way for someone who learned where Nikola Jokic did and grew up idolizing Pau Gasol.

[drsd]

Bitadze, like the one holding the candle on a date, remained alone at the side without a single reporter who was interested in him.

Sad, but funny as it's true!

[Knightro]

I hope he gets cleared to play tonight.

Get that 97th percentile defender, 96th percentile rebounder and 96th percentile shot blocker back into our starting lineup.