By John Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
The Indiana Pacers and president Kevin Pritchard are certainly not holding back expressing their pleasure on picking Goga Bitadze in the 2019 NBA draft. “You know how we know it’s a good pick? The phone rings the second you pick him” Pritchard pointed out while introducing the 19-year-old Georgian center via press conference.
“I’ve never had it ringing like I had it yesterday. Maybe some of the ex-teams I’ve been with were pretty hotly in pursuit. Not a little bit, but hotly in pursuit. I’ve never seen it like that” he admitted afterwards.
The Pacers grabbed Bitadze in 18th place, but were ready to strike a deal and move up the list in order to secure his services. “Let’s just say more than three or four teams were getting aggressive to get him” Pritchard explained and then underlined: “It was the easiest decision I’ve ever made in the draft. There was more consensus than I’ve ever seen.”
The question now is how the organization’s top draft pick will fit alongside Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner. Coach Nate McMillan confessed: “I’ve been thinking about it all night long, and will continue to think about it throughout the summer,” before adding: “We’re going to play to our strengths. If that’s two bigs out there on the floor and pounding inside, we’ll take advantage of that.”
Bitadze himself shared his take on the his new team remembering watching them during the 2017 NBA Playoffs: “They caught my eye because they were playing like one team; like a family. I could see that in their games they were playing really tough and were out there competing and having fun. It was great series and it was really disappointing, because refs I think made bad call. It was heartbreaking. I watch a lot of NBA but they caught my eye, definitely.”
Photo Credit: Getty Images