Svi Mykhailiuk Carved Out a New Role For Himself in Oklahoma City
The Oklahoma City Thunder jettisoned their longest tenured player when they dealt Hamidou Diallo near the trade deadline.
Getting Svi Mykhailiuk in return, Sam Presti and Mark Daigneault added more than just a bench spark plug, but a playmaker who can create his own shot and stretch the floor.
Mykhailiuk settled right in with the Thunder, and looked comfortable almost immediately.
“Everybody made it (easy to adjust),” Mykhailiuk said during his end of the season exit interview last month. “The organization, coaching staff players, everybody around me made it a lot easier for me to adjust.”
As a result, the Ukrainian forward posted his best points per game mark in his three-year career, and shot a career best 43.8 percent from the field with OKC.
A lot of Mykhailiuk’s improvements could be boiled down to an improved shot selection.
In Oklahoma City, Mykhailiuk was asked to take less 3-pointers, and expand his game by getting to the rim.
After 63.6 percent of his shots were from deep in his rookie season, and 70.4 percent of attempts came from 3-point range last season, only 50 percent of his shots put up in Oklahoma City were from beyond the arc.
And the 3-pointers he did take were higher percentage triples. Mykhailiuk camped out in the corner a lot more with the Thunder, taking 30.8 percent of his 3’s from the corner. As a result, he shot his best percentage from the corner in his career (47.7 percent), nearly six percentage points higher than his previous career best mark.
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The former Kansas star said he was pleased with how he feels he raised others’ opinion of him around the league.
“I feel like I did raise it because I showed I can do a lot of different things than just shooting the ball,” he said. “I’m not just a shooter who stands to shoot, but I can shoot the ball and make plays for other people.”
So where did he start shooting from?
Mykhailiuk either pulled up from mid-range, or blew by defenders to get to the basket.
Logging a career-high 14 dunks, 27.2 percent of Mykhailiuk’s shot attempts came from within three feet of the bucket. Another 13 percent of his shots came between three and 10 feet of the basket, and he essentially eliminated all shots further than 10 feet out that were inside the 3-point line.
Svi Mykhailiuk found a new lease on life getting to the rim for the Oklahoma City Thunder
Alonzo Adams / USA TODAY Sports
Mykhailiuk said he felt he grew in every area of the game this season, and the Thunder coaching staff played a big role in his development.
“I would say overall I just became a more well-rounded player,” Mykhailiuk said. “Being a part of this team helped me a lot.”
Mykhailiuk also was able to make plays for his teammates around him, doling out 1.8 assists per game with the Thunder.
Entering the offseason, Mykhailiuk now enters free agency where anything could happen, but he didn’t shut the door on returning to Oklahoma City.
“It is what it is. I’ll just take some time off and definitely love being here,” he said. “I love the team and obviously the organization, but everyone know it’s a business."
