Goga Bitadze knows his role for the Orlando Magic. It is the one he embraced after struggling to find his fit with the Indiana Pacers through the first three seasons of his career.
As Bitadze explained when he arrived in Orlando, he felt like the Indiana Pacers did not quite know what they wanted him to become. The Magic had some clearer focus.
They needed a rough-and-tumble big man who could defend, protect the rim and roll hard to the basket. They needed a player willing to be physical and buy into their defensive identity.
Bitadze has been about as much of a perfect fit as the team could hope for. When the Magic have needed him to step into the starting lineup, he has been a bedrock for the team on the interior.
Still, the idea of Bitadze expanding his offensive repertoire has always been present. The Magic need spacing from every position and the thought of Bitadze being at least a nominal threat to pop as much as he is to roll is still enticing.
While Bitadze wants to focus on his interior game, he has admitted in the past that he wants to improve his outside shot and give the Magic more, making himself more valuable.
That is what made the footage Bitadze posted to his social media platforms so intriguging. As Georgia prepares for Eurobasket, Bitadze shared himself draining threes during a team practice.
👌🏀🇬🇪 pic.twitter.com/XEpsLLFyEY
— Goga Bitadze (@GogaBiitadze) July 31, 2025
Whether this is something Bitadze is comfortable introducing into games -- he regularly shoots threes in the shooting sessions in practice. But it is presents plenty of intriguing possibilities.
Now that Bitadze has established himself and secured a role in the NBA with the Magic, he has the chance to expand his game.
Bitadze has never been asked to shoot threes in Orlando
To be sure, the Orlando Magic have not asked Goga Bitadze to be a heavy 3-point shooter in his three seasons with the team. Bitadze has taken a total of 54 threes. He has made only seven (13.0 percent).
Last year, Bitadze went 3 for 28 from three (10.7 percent), marking the most 3-point attempts he has taken since joining the Magic.
Overall, 61.7 percent of his total field goal attempts with the Magic came within three feet of the basket, according to Basketball-Reference. And nearly 90 percent -- 87.9, to be exact -- have come within 10 feet in his time with the Magic.
Part of what made Bitadze successful coming to Orlando is that the Magic focused him so much on his finishing around the rim and his shooting around the rim.
They turned him into a hard-rolling player -- he scored 1.16 points per possessions as the roll man on pick and rolls, leading the centers in that stat. That is what the Magic needed.
But that chance to expand his game has always been floating around.
The Magic like to use their bigs in dribble hand offs from the high post. Having a center who is not a threat to shoot from the free throw line and elbows limits what they can do out of those sets. An expansion of his game is easy to see.
Bitadze used to be more of a shooter
Goga Bitadze has been a more frequent three-point shooter in the past. His struggles from deep were one of the reasons he fell out of favor with the Indiana Pacers. They wanted a better shooter in that place. It was something of a miscasting for Bitadze.
Bitadze shot 55 for 215 (25.6 percent) in his four seasons with the Pacers. That is still a low-volume average of 1.3 per game. But it was a much bigger part of his game. He took 79 threes in 2021 and 80 threes in 2022. The Pacers planned on using Bitadze more as a shooter.
He has always had that potential. It was part of his scouting report coming out of Georgia and entering the NBA. It was a piece of the puzzle to develop because Bitadze had such good court sense with the ball away from the basket.
The shooting never came around. The Magic were right to get him back to his basics and letting him wreak havoc in the paint. They needed him to recover those basics.
But now that those basics are more established -- minus the rough finish to last season. Perhaps it is time to see if Bitadze can expand his game. He already tried by shooting more threes last year, even if that scaled back later in the season as roles became more defined and players experimented less.
Summer is the time to try to expand your game and grow. And Bitadze seems to be trying to add this to his game.