Indiana Pacers: Complete grades for the 2019 NBA offseason
By Fox Doucette
Drafted Goga Bitadze
I am on record as saying I thought the Indiana Pacers should’ve traded the 18th pick in this year’s draft for a rotation piece.
After all, the Pacers traded pick 20 in 2016 to the Brooklyn Nets for Thaddeus Young, gifting the Nets Caris LeVert in the process, but creating what is near-universally regarded as a win-win for both teams.
Coach Nate McMillan is not a developer of NBA talent. That’s not his strength. He takes veteran guys, gets them to play together and as the Pacers proved in the past two seasons, makes them greater than the sum of the parts.
So the idea of bringing Goga Bitadze up behind Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis? That would be a daunting challenge for any coach of a team with designs on 50 wins, but for McMillan, the idea of maximizing Bitadze’s potential seems laughable.
What the Pacers needed was (and is) a good crop of 3-and-D wings that they can use to build a modern NBA offense.
Unless Bitadze ends up being the next Nikola Jokic, he was the best available player on the board but pretty close to the worst possible fit for the actual roster he’s joining. Indiana should’ve traded the 18th pick.