The Utah Jazz have seen multiple players on their roster fall into a bit of a cold start through the first few weeks of the new season. That's to be expected for a team that's 1-8 in its first nine games.

And throughout those ups and downs of the Jazz's early season, we've seen Will Hardy make a handful of interesting decisions as it relates to Utah's rotation.

Without two of his usual starters in the frontcourt due to injury in Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jusuf Nurkic, Hardy has been forced to get a bit creative in how he distributes his minutes on a nightly basis. A few strategies have worked, most haven't been as successful.

But within the Jazz's turbulent start, there's been one player within the rotation who hasn't been able to get much clicking on either side of the ball––to the point where Hardy could be forced to bench him until further notice: and that's Svi Mykhailiuk.

Svi Mykhailiuk Is Playing His Way Out of the Jazz's Rotation

Coming off of a career-best season with Utah in 2025-26, the expectation for Mykhailiuk heading into this season was for him to emerge as a plug-and-play contributor on the wing for a now-winning Jazz roster who could play for around 15 to 20 minutes a night, space the floor and work well off the ball.

But nine games in, Mykhailiuk has debatably been the worst player in the Jazz's rotation.

And that's no slight on Mykhailiuk. When he's firing on all cylinders offensively and the Jazz's shots from deep are hitting, his presence within this rotation can be valuable. That just doesn't happen to be the case right now.

Mykhailiuk is averaging a brutal 3.7 points per game while playing a little over 16 minutes a night. He's shooting 28.3% from the field and 20.7% from three; both of which are currently on pace to be career lows.

Defensively, things don't get much better. The Jazz allow 7.5 more points and shoot 5.4% better from the field per 100 possessions in lineups where Mykhailiuk is on the floor, according to Cleaning the Glass.

Things just aren't working out on either side of the ball for Mykhailiuk early on. Every player in the league, even veterans, are due for their slumps every now and then.

But for as long as Mykhailiuk is producing as a net negative on both sides of the ball, the case for the Jazz to continue feeding him minutes in the second unit becomes a whole lot tougher to make. He's just not providing enough of an impact compared to other candidates that could contribute within the second unit.

The Jazz have depth pieces in the frontcourt to give more minutes to in an effort to boost their offensive rebounding or interior defense. Maybe Utah turns back to Isaiah Collier for a more traditional point guard. Josh Okogie or Josh Green could get more playing time for a better look defensively.

However, until Mykhailiuk is able to find his shooting consistency, or can be at least average on the defensive end, the Jazz should keep him out of the rotation and go in a different direction. Maybe then their struggling bench production thus far can turn around with a fresh look with more size or overall versatility.