{"id":143134,"date":"2025-06-02T16:20:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T20:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=143134"},"modified":"2025-06-02T16:20:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T20:20:18","slug":"lakers-goga-bitadze-realistic-trade-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/06\/02\/lakers-goga-bitadze-realistic-trade-target\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Backup Center Considered “Realistic” Trade Target for Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Los Angeles Lakers searching for a variety of centers ahead of free agency and the draft, a backup big from the East has emerged as a potential target and is an intriguing departure from those already connected to the team.<\/span><\/p>\n

Young Backup Center Considered “Realistic” Trade Target for Lakers<\/b><\/h2>\n

Lakers May Be Landing Spot for Goga Bitadze<\/b><\/h3>\n

Khobi Price, a Lakers beat writer for the Orange County Register, recently mentioned Orlando center <\/span>Goga Bitadze<\/span><\/a> as <\/span>a \u201crealistic\u201d potential target<\/span><\/a> for the purple and gold. The 25-year-old\u2019s name popped up as an honorable mention, but his recent success indicates he could fit into a franchise needing help in the middle.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 18th overall pick by the <\/span>Pacers<\/span><\/a> in 2019, <\/span>Bitadze<\/span><\/a> enjoyed a brief rotational role in Indiana before being waived in February 2023, with the Magic adding him days later. This season, he earned career-highs in games played (70) and started (42), as well as minutes per contest (20.4), making the most of his opportunities. Bitadze averaged 7.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.4 blocks while shooting 61% from the field, 10% (3\/28) from three and 64% from the free-throw line. Despite his productivity, he fell <\/span>out of the rotation by year\u2019s end<\/span><\/a>, with a mid-January concussion affecting his play in the latter half of the season.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Georgian center has plenty to offer as an <\/span>interior scorer<\/span><\/a>, lob threat and rim protector, and his <\/span>comfortability in the pick-and-roll<\/span><\/a> would be a tremendous asset next to LA\u2019s elite playmakers. With the Lakers facing the possibility of <\/span>losing<\/span><\/a> Jaxson Hayes<\/span><\/a> in free agency, they\u2019ll need to shore up both the starting and backup center spots. Bitadze\u2019s experience makes him a solid candidate for the latter, with the potential to enter the first unit if need be. In those <\/span>42 games as a starter<\/span><\/a>, Bitadze put up 9.1 points (61% FG), 8.4 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.8 blocks.<\/span><\/p>\n

What the Lakers Could Offer for Goga Bitadze<\/b><\/h3>\n

Bitadze is in the middle of a three-year deal with Orlando and is owed $15.3 million over the next two seasons. On an $8.3 million salary next year, the Lakers could easily match that number with an expiring contract or players on smaller deals.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Nov
Nov 21, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) walks off the court as Orlando Magic center Goga Bitadze (35) celebrates after a 119-118 win at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A recent <\/span>mock trade from Fadeaway World<\/span><\/a> has the Lakers acquiring Bitadze and reuniting with <\/span>Kentavious Caldwell-Pope<\/span><\/a> while parting with <\/span>Jarred Vanderbilt<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Dalton Knecht<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Gabe Vincent<\/span><\/a>. While such a deal would help the Lakers boost their shooting, defense and bench depth in one fell swoop, there is no indication that the Magic are placing KCP on the trade block. Thus, a simplified trade for Bitadze alone could involve one or two of the Lakers mentioned above. The team also has <\/span>Maxi Kleber<\/span><\/a>\u2019s expiring contract ($11 million) and\/or <\/span>Shake Milton<\/span><\/a>\u2019s filler salary ($3 million) to use in a potential deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lakers would benefit from adding Goga Bitadze to their roster, bringing in a young player with skills the team can maximize next to <\/span>Luka Doncic<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>LeBron James<\/span><\/a>. With Bitadze likely going into a reserve role upon <\/span>Mo Wagner<\/span><\/a>\u2019s return, it makes sense to get him into a better situation with a star-studded contender.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the Los Angeles Lakers searching for a variety of centers ahead of free agency and the draft, a backup big from the East has emerged as a potential target and is an intriguing departure from those already connected to the team. Young Backup Center Considered “Realistic” Trade Target for Lakers Lakers May Be Landing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":143139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,3,4721],"tags":[49212,4921,49021,2941,38,1133,2057,3811],"class_list":["post-143134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","category-trade-rumors","tag-dalton-knecht","tag-gabe-vincent","tag-goga-bitadze","tag-jarred-vanderbilt","tag-lebron-james","tag-luka-doncic","tag-maxi-kleber","tag-shake-milton"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143134"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143147,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143134\/revisions\/143147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}