Will Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk be the Blazers' solution to 3 point shooting?
Stop me if you've heard this one before. The Portland Trailblazers have traded for a shooting specialist European who can grow facial hair to varying degrees of success. And yet, that's precisely what's happened again, when the Blazers announced a deal that ships veterans small forward Kawhi Leonard and Vasilije Mcic to the Philadelphia 76ers for Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, a 27 year old mid-career veteran who is traditionally an impact shooter from 3 point range.
"We love what Kawhi has done for us this season, and Vasilije has been surprisingly effective as well," said GM Jestor in the press conference confirming the trade. "But we're in a situation where neither one of those players were part of our long-term future. And this was an opportunity to see how Svi performs in our system."
The career 37.7% from downtown shooter is having his worst season as a pro by far, hitting just 23.9% of his shots behind the arc this year, though his mid-range game continues to be spectacular, allowing him to convert 45% of his total shots from the floor despite the anemic distance shooting.
Like Laurynas Birutis, the Lithuanian brings a championship pedigree, having won a title with the Miami Heat last season as a mid-range specialist off the bench. A solid defensive rebounder with sufficient floor general skills to play the 2, Svi is also a decent ballthief and has some scoring ability even though he failed to find many shot opportunities in the lineups he played in with the 76ers - averaging just over 4 shot attempts per game, and he faced a similar situation with the Miami Heat.
"When you look at his performance and how he's never really had an opportunity to take the green light, you have to wonder if perhaps Portland will be the place he can finally spread his wings and take flight," said an anonymous CSL scout. "Svi has some fans around the league and being able to step into Portland might give him the chance to really showcase what he can do."
The question is where he plays in the lineup. He's played both the SG and SF spots in the City of Brotherly Love. There's a variety of options on the table. At the very least, he could be a backup SG (there's zero chance Hamidou Diallo "The Younger is being unseated from his starting position) all the way up to starting at SF even though the Domantas Sabonis experiment just began there.
Another option - he splits assignments between SG and SF in a swing role off the bench, though that would require quite a bit of lineup juggling to figure out what the rotations might look like.
"Worst case scenario, this doesn't work and Portland flips him like they did Venzenkov," continued the scout. "But this is a guy who avoids the post at all costs and he could take some of the pressure off Mirotic for as long as Nikola is there. And with two post-focused guys in Diallo the Younger and Birutis, that might be a diversification that pays off benefits."
More studies to carry out in this season of testing at the very least.
