Recent history indicates taking a foreign-trained player in the top 10 picks is a bigger risk than a U.S. player. Using Win Shares, a statistic that provides a single number to evaluate a player, only 7.7% of foreign-trained top 10 picks develop into All-Star-caliber NBA players vs. 20.7% of U.S. trained players. Foreign-trained players, however, slightly out-perform their U.S. competition in the rest of the first round, 12.9% vs. 9.5%. Though not talked about much leading into the draft, Bitadze was going to be a first-round pick for someone. Several teams, including the San Antonio Spurs, had him high on their draft boards. After failing to trade up into the lottery, the Pacers took him one spot before the Spurs picked.