It’s late in the offseason to make an addition to the rotation, but the Celtics still have a roster to fill out. Enter Svi Mykhailiuk, who has always been on the verge of finding a home in the NBA just before moving on to the next stop. Aside from a full year in Toronto in 2021-22, he’s never finished his season where he started. Can he stick in Boston?

The 26-year-old is a valuable addition to the back end of the roster because Boston still needs someone to both work off the ball as a shooter and have the composure to run patient pick-and-roll when they can’t get to their shot. At 6-foot-7, he gives Joe Mazzulla some flexibility to not rely on Payton Pritchard as a floor spacer against bigger lineups.

He’ll compete more with Sam Hauser for minutes and has the advantage of being a more capable playmaker, but he can also play alongside Hauser in second-unit lineups led by one of Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown. That way, Boston can stay big across the board but still have a ton of shooting and enough ball movers to keep the offense running.

Mazzulla has to consistently put out rotations that have ideally three or more playmakers on the floor to avoid stagnation and Mykhailiuk can help. He’s not going to be a key cog in the game plan, as he is on a minimum after all.

But Mykhailiuk is known for being a knockdown shooter and has enough variety to his game to be useful on the nights when he can’t hit anything. He works as a secondary playmaker who can run basic pick-and-roll, feeding the big as they dive through the lane or dribbling into space so he can kick it out to a shooter.

A good example came against Cleveland’s 2-3 zone, as he was able to work his way deep into the paint to find his roller with ease. Mykhailiuk is able to squeeze some passes into tight windows and tends to operate in these more collapsed defenses that let him play at his pace.

He’s not quick enough to fly through the paint, but he’s a crafty dribbler with just enough physicality that he can get to floater-range finishes or make late pocket passes to the roller deep in the paint.

He’s also got a nice left hand and can get to an up-and-under finger roll or even a running hook shot with that hand. Mkhailiuk is nice with the hang dribble to throw defenders off balance and get around the edge on drives, then can still find the balance to pull up from awkward spots when he draws some contact. He’s a three-level scorer and playmaker, just not at a high enough level or with enough speed and power to lock down a multi-year deal.

But the veteran minimum signing comes to Boston with positive reviews from personnel on his previous teams who spoke with The Athletic on the condition of anonymity so they could talk freely. Multiple former coaches raved about his work ethic and his penchant for throwing down random windmill dunks or sprinting full speed into shots during practice, with one saying, “He does some jaw-dropping stuff in workouts.”

A former staffer who worked with Mykhailiuk closely felt he turned the corner last year once he left the Knicks for the Hornets, where he averaged 17.3 points and 5.3 assists per night when he started the final eight games of the season. After spending his time in New York making occasional brief appearances, getting a consistent role on a late-season Charlotte team gave him the reps he needed to find a rhythm and play some of the best ball of his career.

So the question is why a player who has flashed this kind of potential and has such strong reviews is still a journeyman who didn’t even sign a deal late in the offseason?

Consistency and defensive impact are the crux of the issue. He tends to go on hot streaks with his outside shooting, which tends to be exacerbated by the fact limited and inconsistent minutes make it hard to keep a shooting rhythm going. Then as a defender, he’s a little too slow-footed to stay in front of guards and not quite strong enough to handle bigger athletic wings.

His 1.013 points allowed per possession ranked just 25th percentile in the NBA last season, per Synergy. But a lot of those made baskets came when he helped off corner shooters and had to recover to contest open shots. Mykhailiuk makes solid defensive reads and tends to be quick to recover, but his athletic limitations see him coming up short on those contests or getting screened out of plays when he’s covering guards on the ball.

Look for Mykhailiuk (No. 10) getting clipped off by an Alperen Şengün screen in the first clip, then being caught flat-footed a few times by the Thunder’s explosive ballhandlers. When his role is to help off the corner shooter, he’s usually fine. But offenses know how to target him and get him moving in the wrong direction.

But those are the tradeoffs when analyzing players at the end of the roster. While Dalano Banton can provide a bit more defensive impact while being able to run pick-and-roll, he can’t shoot it. Jay Scrubb showed some nice pop with the ball in summer league, but the defenses in Vegas don’t even compare to the worst teams in the NBA.

Mykhailiuk is going to be useful at times, then may disappear from the rotation at others. But when Mazzulla needs to find someone deep on his bench that he can trust to help the offense out of a rut, he’s got another solid option.