Indiana Pacers exercise options on Aaron Holiday and Goga Bitadze

The Indiana Pacers have made a few roster decisions for next season.

A day before they open the 2020-21 NBA season, the Indiana Pacers have exercised the team options on Aaron Holiday and Goga Bitadze for the 2021-22 season. The first-round picks will be in Indiana for at least two more seasons.

Both players are hoping for a larger role this season, which has been evident in Aaron Holiday’s case this preseason. Nate Bjorkgren has used Holiday quite a bit and has inserted him into the starting lineup with T.J. Warren battling injury.

Goga Bitadze has yet to make a sizeable impact on the Pacers thanks to injuries and a traffic jam in front of him on the roster. His size and skill set is very similar to Myles Turner, which makes him a very promising backup this season. Once he returns from injury, he should make a better impact than he did as a rookie last season.

Fans are seemingly already over Goga Bitadze, which is understandable given the Pacers’ recent success with first-round big men. T.J. Leaf never panned out under Nate McMillan and was traded to the Thunder this offseason. Goga is still just 21 years old and is adapting to the NBA, so there will be struggles along the way.

As the team’s primary backup center heading into the season, this could be a huge opportunity for Goga. For now, he just needs to get healthy and get plenty of reps with the rotation. The good news is that the Pacers now have him under contract for next season and can continue to mold his game under Bjorkgren, a coach who has developed plenty of young players into quality role players.

The Pacers have plenty of decisions still to make for next season’s roster, and those dominos may fall throughout this season. Trades and contract extensions can come at any time and the Pacers have been rumored to make some moves all offseason. This season is sure to be exciting in that regard.