Georgia’s historic run to the quarterfinals<\/a> is reason enough to celebrate.<\/p>\nBitadze finished with 14 points, six rebounds and three assists. Georgia was +4 with Bitadze on the floor during the game. It was another sign of Bitadze’s overall positive impact.<\/p>\n
Overall in the tournament, Bitadze averaged 15.8 points per game and 5.8 rebounds per game. He shot 58.1 percent from the floor and 8 for 22 (36.4 percent) from three, adding another 3-pointer to his ledger in Wednesday’s game.<\/p>\n
But there was still something left on the table.<\/p>\n
The tournament was a sign of all of Bitadze’s promise and growth. But still left plenty for him to gain and grow as he now turns his attention to the NBA season in a few weeks.<\/p>\n
Bitadze showed offensive growth<\/p>\n
Goga Bitadze has always been able to put up points in bunches. His biggest strength has been his ability to rack up points and fill in gaps in the paint. He gobbles up offensive rebounds and scavenges for putbacks. He screens and rolls into space and can play above the rim.<\/p>\n
Bitadze had a career season for the Magic last year, averaging 7.2 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. He was even stronger when he was pressed into starting duty early in the season. Bitadze has always been able to work around the basket and perform his role as asked.<\/p>\n
Bitadze took to this offseason to expand his offensive role, getting more comfortable working around the perimeter and away from the basket.<\/p>\n
That was seen most in his 3-point shooting. The fact that he regularly took threes throughout this tournament was a stunning development.<\/p>\n
Bitadze averaged only 0.4 3-point attempts per game, taking 28 3-pointers total in 70 games last season. Bitadze averaged 3.7 3-point attempts per game for Georgia, taking 22 attempts in six games at EuroBasket.<\/p>\n
Bitadze was solid too, making 36.4 percent of those shots. It is an intriguing development.<\/p>\n
Bitadze is not about to become a regular 3-point shooter with the Magic. But the option of expanding beyond the paint opens up possibilities for him. It adds more to his offensive arsenal.<\/p>\n
Having him step away from the basket is vital to Bitadze gaining a more diverse role and increased playing time. He indeed has added dimensions to his game.<\/p>\n
Bitadze still need to keep his cool<\/p>\n
But none of that matters if the Orlando Magic cannot count on him to keep his cool, stay disciplined and do what they need when he is on the floor.<\/p>\n
That remains the big thing for Bitadze: Consistency.<\/p>\n
No one questions his abilities and how much they have continued to grow. It is about putting them together to make them their most efficient and effective. And tha has been the part that has eluded Bitadze the most.<\/p>\n
That was the case throughout this tournament too. Bitadze did not always have those pieces put together.<\/p>\n
He struggled through frustration in the round of 16 game against France, costing his team in critical moments until he snapped to attention to make several big plays to assure the win. It was the same in the group play finale against Bosnia and Herzegovina. <\/p>\n
The unnecessary technical foul he committed looking for a call in the second quarter on Wednesday put him in jeopardy when he hit someone with an elbow. Knowing when to use his physicality remains a major issue.<\/p>\n
In the end, with Georgia trying to crawl back into the game and needing the stability Bitadze can bring in the paint, he was disqualified from the game for a flying elbow. The same kind of play that changed momentum in the Game 2 loss to the Boston Celtics.<\/p>\n
Bitadze finds himself consistently in situations that require composure and detail. He still struggles to bring those together, even if his incidents are merely a product of circumstance.<\/p>\n
His EuroBasket run undoubtedly proved Bitadze has taken some major steps. He has a more diverse offensive skill set to bring to the Magic in a few weeks. He stepped up in big moments to help Georgia make a historic run in EuroBasket, advancing to the nation’s first quarterfinal.<\/p>\n
But there is still a lot of work to do for Bitadze to gain the consistency he needs to carve his role and firm his place with the Magic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The definition of Goga Bitadze was seen in a sequence of plays in the fourth quarter as Georgia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-147054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}