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Summary
Mykhailiuk's value is pretty clear, and that's as a shooter. The former Jayhawk has shown legitimate ability to hit tough threes, and has a career three point percentage of 36%. He can hit shots coming off pindowns, and can shoot over tough contests by defenders. At 6'8", he has legitimate size, similar to what makes Duncan Robinson valuable (beyond his other-worldly shooting ability). He's not great off the bounce, and is generally a poor defender, but I think he can develop enough in those areas to become reliable, similar to what Joe Harris has done to fill out his game.

Despite playing four years at Kansas, Mykhailiuk entered college really young, so he's only 24 after finishing his third year in the league. While that's not super young, it's still young enough to expect some growth, even if the likelihood of vast improvements is pretty low.
 
Cap Considerations
Mykhailiuk will be a restricted free agent with full Bird rights and a $2.1 million cap hold and Qualifying Offer. If a player has a smaller cap hold than his starting salary, his team can use cap space to sign-free agents before using Bird Rights to re-sign its own free agents. Therefore, if the Thunder operate under the cap, they could use their cap-room then re-sign Mykhailiuk afterwards.

If Mykhailiuk is brought back by the Thunder on a multi-year contract, they should frontload his contract as much as possible, especially since they could do so without losing any cap space.

Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Mykhailiuk as even teams without cap space could possibly use either of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Taxpayer MLE, or possibly even the Room MLE to sign him to an offer sheet. However, Mykhailiuk being a restricted free agent will greatly lower his interest among teams, as they will worry that the only way to pry him away from Oklahoma City would be to significantly overpay him.

Potential Teams: Thunder, Grizzlies, Cavaliers, Knicks, Hornets

Predicted Contract: 2-year, $9 million with the Thunder

Actual Contract: 2-year, $3.5 million (player option) with the Raptors

I was surprised the Thunder didn't try harder to retain Mykhailiuk, and was also surprised that even after having his Qualifying Offer revoked he had to settle for a two-year minimum contract.

Last updated: 8/28/2021

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