As the Los Angeles Lakers get ready for the offseason to fully get underway, the front office’s first priority must be on landing a center.

Los Angeles doesn’t have a starting caliber center on the roster currently, and upgrading across the frontcourt is a must for this team.

While the Lakers have been linked with multiple players, they are realistically limited in what they can do. Due to a lack of tradable assets, Los Angeles will need to hone in on a few targets that they can land.

One of those players is center Goga Bitadze of the Orlando Magic. Due to the financial constraints that Orlando has, Bitadze could be a cap casualty, and the Lakers could explore a deal.

NBA cap expert Yossi Gozlan spoke about Orlando potentially looking to dump the salary of Bitadze this offseason.

“Don’t be surprised if they trade Goga Bitadze or Anthony Black and just dump them and get some picks back. They’re at the point where they need to decide who their top 5-6 guys are within this cap environment. The Magic are already dangerously close to that situation starting next year.”, Gozlan said.

Bitadze may be better served as a backup center for the Lakers, but it would be a good start. But Los Angeles could also use him as the starter as well.

The Lakers were also mentioned as a landing spot for the Magic center on The Game Theory podcast featuring Bryce Simon and Sam Vecenie. The two proposed a deal that would send Bitadze to Los Angeles, along with former guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

“Orlando is the team that I thought of for sure here…Orlando looking at this like, ‘Okay, we can get off the [Kentavious Caldwell-Pope] money, use the Goga [Bitadze] deal’…and we could do something like Rui and Gabe Vincent for KCP and Goga Bitadze. You’ll have to add value in somewhere, maybe Knecht is the value piece there as opposed to the 2031 first “, Vecenie said.

If Los Angeles views Bitadze as the best option for the summer, they could make a hard push to land him. Bitadze is scheduled to make $8.3 million next year, giving the Lakers a decent chance to make a deal possible.

Last season, the center averaged 7.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.4 blocks per game. Bitadze has been a very popular name among fans, but his fit with the team does make a lot of sense.