DETROIT — Lauri Markkanen remembers staring at the athletic kid from Ukraine on the other side of the court.
It was during warmups of a 2015 FIBA U18 EuroBasket between Finland and Ukraine, and the big name was Svi Mykhailiuk. The guard had just committed to Kansas and was busy doing an array of impressive dunks during layup lines.
That caught just about everyone’s attention — including the visiting team.
Ten years later, Mykhailiuk had a similar effect in Detroit.
Maybe not from some high-flying dunks — at 28, he’s lost some of that early bounce — but an array of shots that kept things interesting in a 114-103 Detroit win over Utah Wednesday at Little Caesars Arena.
The journeyman guard scored a career-high 28 points, going 10-of-16 from the field and hitting six 3-pointers in the loss.
“I’ve played against him in international games, I’ve known him from college days,” Markkanen said. “He’s steadily getting better. I’m happy he found a role that he can play. He’s doing a good job for us.”
A role that he’s been chasing for years.
The Jazz are Mykhailiuk’s eighth team. He’s been on the Lakers; had a stop in Detroit (was Wednesday a revenge game?); spent time on the Thunder and Raptors; had cups of coffee with the Knicks and Hornets; and had a season in Boston.
That’s meant he’s mostly stayed out of the spotlight. He is so used to being in the background that even after a career-high game, he was quickly dressed and on the bus before the media got in the locker room. Talking after games isn’t usually part of his job.
“Svi’s been on nine teams — something like that — and so it doesn’t always work out in the first place,” Markkanen said. “When I’ve talked to him, he’s kept his mind right and kept working, and now he’s in a spot that he gets to play a lot and he has a lot of responsibility. I’m happy for him.”
Mykhailiuk has started every game for the Jazz this season — averaging 6.9 points in 27.1 minutes. He’s provided some floor spacing and some added creation ability to a team that can lack ball handling.
“He’s steady in terms of his approach, his professionalism, kind of understanding where he is in his career and how he can play off the other guys,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said. “We’ve had him in certain moments, handle the ball a bunch, because we needed it — and he grew up as a point guard. So, yeah, he’s an overall pretty skilled basketball player and a really competitive guy.”
Still, his minutes have come to the frustration of some Jazz fans, who are eager to see rookie Ace Bailey move into the starting lineup and take on a bigger role.
That’s understandable — Bailey, after all, could very well be the future of the franchise and Mykhailiuk might not be on the team after this season. So what gives?
Well, Hardy doesn’t believe in gifting minutes, and he thinks Mykhailiuk’s career can serve as an example to Utah’s young players.
“Desperation is a heck of a thing,” Hardy said. “I think he models really good professional behavior for our young players, because Svi is in a moment where you look at his contract and he’s playing for something. But the way he carries himself, the way he interacts with all of his teammates, he would never let you know that there’s that desperation — he doesn’t make it about himself.
“He really gives himself to the group. And I think that’s something that we can all take from Svi.”
And, yes, he’s rubbing off on Bailey, who had some major flashes in Utah’s loss — including a high-flying rebound and quick dump-off assist to Markkanen.
“I mean, his time and the patience he got — everything I do right now, I feel like it’s kind of fast,” Bailey said. “I mean, he’s got patience with it; keeping the dribble alive, making the next read and stuff like that. So I’m learning a lot from Svi.”
Mykhailiuk may not dunk like he once did, but this season, he’s shown he can still make a lasting impression.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
