International center Goga Bitadze has officially entered the 2019 NBA Draft, Jonathan Givony of ESPN reports. The Georgian big man is a likely first-round pick and could conceivably squeeze into the lottery.
Bitadze currently sits in the No. 15 spot on Tankathon’s NBA Draft Big Board and has made waves playing EuroLeague basketball over the past few seasons. Bitadze was a dominant force in the highly regarded Adriatic League in 2018-19.
The 6’11”, 19-year-old split the most recent campaign between two clubs but still joined Nikola Jokic and Dario Saric as former MVPs of the league. Those two promptly went on to have success in the NBA.
While Bitadze does project as somewhat of a traditional big man at a type when that’s less and less valuable, his size and strength, coupled with his international accolades, will have plenty of teams contemplating his NBA ceiling.
