Dominating international play with Ukraine, Svi Mykhailiuk is proving he can facilitate and defend, pressuring Utah to expand his role beyond that of a stationary floor spacer.
The Utah Jazz have spent most of Svi Mykhailiuk's time in Salt Lake City asking him to shoot.
Ukraine keeps asking him to do a whole lot more.
Five days after we made the case for Mykhailiuk to get another look following his dominant summer with Ukraine, the 29-year-old provided another reason Monday.
He also did it after his worst shooting performance of World Cup qualifying.
Mykhailiuk poured in 23 points with six rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks in Ukraine's 98-89 victory over Montenegro, knocking down five 3-pointers while leading his country in scoring.
The performance helped Ukraine improve to 6-2 and remain atop Group I.
It also provided quite the response.
Mykhailiuk opened the latest qualifying window with 13 points, six rebounds and four assists against Greece, though those numbers came with an ugly shooting night. He went 3-of-17 from the field and made just one of his nine attempts from beyond the arc.
Ukraine still won 82-76.
In its next game … Mykhailiuk looked much more like the player who spent July torching international competition.
His 23 points against Montenegro came on 6-of-16 shooting, including 5-of-12 from three, while he went 6-of-7 from the free-throw line.
That brings Mykhailiuk's four-game World Cup qualifying run to 94 points.
The first 58 came during a ridiculous two-game stretch in July.
Mykhailiuk scored 28 points with five rebounds, four assists, four steals and two blocks against Georgia before following it with 30 points, four rebounds and five assists against Denmark.
He did all of that in 55 total minutes.
The difference between Mykhailiuk's responsibilities for Ukraine and Utah remains important. Ukraine asks him to carry a much larger offensive burden, giving the Jazz another look at what he can do when more of the offense runs through him.
Utah didn't need him to do that last season.
Mykhailiuk averaged 9.4 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists across 50 games, making 41 starts and shooting 40.8% from beyond the arc.
His job with Ukraine has offered a different challenge … and so far, he's taken advantage.
Through four World Cup qualifiers, Mykhailiuk has scored 94 points. He's topped 20 in three of them, with the lone exception coming during his miserable shooting night against Greece.
Then he responded with 23 points while contributing six rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks against Montenegro.
That's the part Utah should be paying attention to.
The Jazz already know Mykhailiuk can shoot. He made better than 40% of his 3-pointers for them last season.
Ukraine keeps giving him more responsibility.
Mykhailiuk keeps giving Utah reasons to wonder how much more he can handle.
