Player Preview: Donald Sloan, Starting from Scratch

Donald Sloan shouldn’t be on the court. Not for a good team in the NBA. But not only will he be in the Indiana Pacers rotation to begin the year, he will be the team’s starting point guard.

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Now, the Pacers aren’t that bad. He didn’t beat anybody out or anything.

It’s just that George Hill will miss the first three weeks of the year, and C.J. Watson will miss at least the first two weeks. That puts Sloan — usually the backup to the backup — in charge of the first-team offense until, best case, November 12.

That is, how you say, not good.

But it could be worse, and perhaps Pacers management were looking at the schedule when they set the return timetables for Watson and Hill. Because even without the first- and second-string point guards in uniform, there is reason to believe that the Pacers could be 4-4 when they wake up on the 12th and start preparing for their rematch with the Miami Heat that night.

Looking at the opening night roster, that might sound preposterous. But four of Indiana’s first eight games are against the Philadelphia 76ers, Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics, and Utah Jazz. Each of those teams is projected to be even worse than Indiana this year, and only the game against Boston is on the road.

This is the emergency. The house is on fire, and its time to break the glass. Hey, maybe it’ll work. Or maybe the building will burn down.

Yes, without a fully healthy squad (which includes David West and Rodney Stuckey on the mend), the Pacers could easily lose to any or all of those teams, even at home. But they could also upset, say, the Washington Wizards, which they play twice in four days in early November.

Weird stuff happens early in the year. This we know.

Looking longer term, Donald Sloan isn’t expected to have much of a role on this team. But like Solomon Hill, he now has a prime opportunity to show both the Pacers and the rest of the NBA that he belongs in this league. A.J. Price was in a similar situation a few years ago, and now he is a five-year NBA veteran who started 22 games last season and might win a ring this year with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Will Price play a lot? Probably not, but when you’re A.J. Price or Donald Sloan, the goal is hanging around the league and making a difference when called upon.

And this isn’t the first time Sloan will be called upon.

He was needed last year, in the heart of The Struggle, when C.J. Watson went down. He wasn’t good. At all. Hopefully, he learned some stuff from that time, and he can forgot most of the bad stuff that happened. Perhaps he can, excuse the pun, start from scratch.

Because the team needs more this time around if it wants to win some early games. Any early games. And Sloan now has some experience. He probably doesn’t have the talent, but maybe there will be some improvement in his second go around. Larry Bird certainly thought enough of him to keep him on the roster as the emergency point guard.

Well, this is the emergency. The house is on fire, and its time to break the glass.

Hey, maybe it’ll work. Or maybe the building will burn down.

– Jared Wade (follow @8pts9secs)

Relevant GIF

Donald Sloan /

If you plan to follow the 2014-15 Indiana Pacers, you’ll need a sense of humor. Laugh so you don’t cry. And what’s funnier than Archer? Nothing. Nothing is the answer.

Key 2013-14 Stats

8.5 player efficiency rating (PER)
2.3 points per game
1.0 assists per game
41.9% eFG%
20.1% assist rate

One Key Question

Is Donald Sloan an NBA point guard or a D-League call up who managed to stick around for year two?

The Situation: Donald Sloan averaged over 22 points per game during his brief stint in the D-League, and after several cups of coffee in the league, he has caught on with the Pacers for a second straight year. However, his D-League success hasn’t translated; during his time in the NBA, he’s shot 38% from the field and 22% from behind the arc, while putting up modest assist numbers. He has maintained better than a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio, however.

Best-case Scenario: C.J. Watson and George Hill share more time in the back court, necessitating more minutes for Sloan, and he rises to the challenge. He slices and dices getting to the hole, making up for his lackluster shooting, and completes his success story.

Worst-case Scenario: Sloan continues to struggle shooting, and this is the last year that NBA fans are seeing and retweeting “I’m Up” every day.

Prediction: Sloan plays only during blowouts and in injury relief and he plays next year wearing another jersey.

– William Furr (follow @Will_Furr)

How He Scores

Donald Sloan /

The above spiderweb chart shows, via Synergy Sports, what types of possessions lead to his points in 2013-14. (created by Tim Donahue, follow

@TimDonahue8p9s

)

How does Donald Sloan score? First off, he doesn’t. He has scored 110 points in his NBA career. But of that total, more than 50% came from spot-up jumpers and while he led the pick and roll. In and of itself, that is good. Indiana needs someone to do both of those things.

Donald Sloan /

His 2013-14 shot chart, via Nylon Calculus

As with the low sample size when it comes to types of plays, this shot is very grain of salty. With just 117 shots to his name and a field goal percentage of 37.6%, there isn’t much to go on. But his size and skill set suggest that the whole Can’t Finish Well Around The Rim thing might carry over to this season.

Sweatin’ Bullets

sweatin bullets /

Sweatin’ Bullets is an 8p9s tradition started by Jonny Auping in which we offer standalone facts, observations, and commentary, often devoid of context or fairness.

Donald Sloan’s 10.1 points per 36 minutes last year actually weren’t much lower than the 11.6/36-minute rate posted by George Hill. And his assists per 36 (4.6) were actually better than Hill (3.9) — and everyone on the team not named Lance Stephenson (4.7). Given that he will start for at least the first two weeks of the season, it isn’t unfathomable that Sloan could lead the team in this category all year. Same deal with assist rate: His 20.1% last year was also second on the team to Stephenson (22.1%). For perspective, Chris Paul’s rate last year was 48.9%.

Donald Sloan might have the best Twitter feed on the team, if only for one reason: His daily announcement that he has regained consciousness after sleeping. Here’s a

Twitter search of every time Donald Sloan has tweeted

, “I’m up.” It occurs basically everyday.https://twitter.com/dsloan15/status/518794779820167169

Let’s go back to August.

And … Back to April.

You get the point. I love the consistency.

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