Los Angeles Lakers: 3 reasons Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk was a good pick
1. Perfect fit around LeBron James
The Cleveland Cavaliers of the past four seasons were a bastion of drama, inconsistency and unbelievable stories (J.R. Smith literally threw a bowl of soup at a coach). Yet what should not be lost amidst the chaos is that this team won the Eastern Conference four years in a row with one of the best offenses in NBA history.
They accomplished that by surrounding the best player in the league with shooters who could place themselves in the right places and knock down open shots when LeBron James fed them passes. Channing Frye, Smith, Kyle Korver, Kevin Love — the Cavaliers unlocked offensive nirvana with shooting around the King.
The 2018-19 Los Angeles Lakers have zagged the other way, placing shooting-challenged playmakers around James in an attempt to forge a new path. It could be that these intelligent basketball minds know more than we do, and are about to unlock something dynamic and wildly successful.
More likely is that this team will be forced to lean on the shooters it has, and that represents an opportunity to Svi Mykhailiuk to shine. Knockdown shooters who can run off screens and aren’t going to be asked to do more than shoot from deep are exactly who LeBron James loves to work with. Ray Allen won a ring filling that role. So did J.R. Smith. Mykhailiuk doesn’t have the pedigree, but he has the skills for the job.
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Whether he can make an impact out of the gate is yet to be seen, but what he showed in Summer League and in college at Kansas suggests he’s tailor-made to be a rotation player on a LeBron James team. Luckily for him, that’s exactly where he ended up.