The Clippers have reportedly checked in on an Orlando big man, but landing him will not be simple.
The Los Angeles Clippers spent last summer adding veterans and hoping for one more run at a title, and this summer is shaping up to look nothing like that.
After trading away two starters in February and using their highest draft pick in over a decade on a guard instead of a big man, the frontcourt is still the one part of the roster nobody around the team feels settled on.
Brook Lopez held down the middle once Ivica Zubac left for Indiana, and the front office liked him enough to exercise his contract option this week, but that does not mean the search for size is finished.
Word is already spreading that Los Angeles checked in on a familiar face out of Orlando.
The Latest Report
Marc Stein and Jake Fischer shared the update through their newsletter this week, writing, "Word is that the Clippers are also among the teams that have expressed trade interest in Orlando's Goga Bitadze. The Stein Line has since learned, though, that the Magic have rebuffed inquiries for the Georgian big man to this point."
The interest makes sense on paper.
Bitadze just turned 26 and spent the season backing up Wendell Carter in Orlando, averaging 5.9 points and 5.0 rebounds in barely 15 minutes a night while still putting together a couple of double-doubles when his number got called.
He has spent most of his career as a rotation piece rather than a featured scorer, but teams have liked his frame and shot-blocking instincts since Indiana made him a first-round pick in 2019.
Production like that from a bench big, at an age more than a decade younger than Lopez, fits what a retooling Los Angeles roster could use.
The Clippers already passed on a center with the fifth pick in last week's draft and took a guard instead, leaving the need at the position about where it sat back in February.
Why It Might Not Happen
The bigger hurdle is that center already has two names attached to it heading into next season.
Lopez is the early favorite to start again after averaging 8.5 points and 3.6 rebounds in his first year with the team, and his $9.2 million option was already picked up Monday.
Isaiah Jackson, who arrived in the Zubac trade, is still on the roster at the position as well.
Adding Bitadze would mean paying for a third option at a spot the front office just spent money locking down, while saving room for free agents like Bennedict Mathurin.
Orlando has already fielded calls on Bitadze from other teams this year and turned them all down, so there is little reason to expect a change now.
Los Angeles finished 42 and 40, good for a play-in trip that ended against Golden State, while Orlando went 45 and 37 and pushed Detroit to seven games in the first round.
Both teams have plenty of roster business left this summer, but Bitadze is not walking out of Orlando without a real offer attached.
