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Brooklyn Nets: Donald Sloan An Important Insurance Policy

By Phil Watson

Oct 19, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Brooklyn Nets guard Donald Sloan (15) dribbles the ball against Boston Celtics guard Avery Bradley (0) during the first half at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 19, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Brooklyn Nets guard Donald Sloan (15) dribbles the ball against Boston Celtics guard Avery Bradley (0) during the first half at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Brooklyn Nets cut forwards Dahntay Jones and Justin Harper on Monday to get their roster down to the required 15-man minimum for opening night.

The two survivors of the cutdown were point guard Donald Sloan and big man Willie Reed, who finally makes an NBA roster after four seasons in the D-League since going undrafted out of Saint Louis in 2011.

But the more important of the two is Sloan, who could be in line for big minutes right out of the gate as starting point guard Jarrett Jack nurses a sore hamstring.

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According to the New York Post, Jack didn’t practice Monday and his availability for Wednesday’s opener against the Chicago Bulls is in doubt.

“It felt like it was a little tight, but I’m still optimistic,” Jack said. “I’ve got, what, a day and a half, two more days almost, to see if it’s ready.”

That would leave newcomer Shane Larkin, signed as a free agent after the New York Knicks declined his third-year option last fall, and Sloan to man the point.

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Sloan spent the last two seasons backing up George Hill with the Indiana Pacers, playing 53 games last season and starting 21 while averaging 7.4 points and 3.6 assists in a career-high 20.9 minutes per game.

Sloan played in three of Brooklyn’s six preseason games, starting one, and averaged 7.3 points and 4.7 assists in 21.3 minutes per game.

Larkin was a better scorer in the warmup games, averaging 9.2 points per game, but he put up only 3.4 assists in 24.6 minutes per game and averaged a team-worst 2.8 turnovers per game.

By contrast, Sloan had one turnover an outing and also posted a team-high 1.7 steals per game.

Larkin is coming into his third NBA season with his third team (not counting the Atlanta Hawks, who drafted him 13th overall in 2013 and immediately traded him to the Dallas Mavericks).

An ankle injury washed out much of his rookie year in Dallas as he played just 48 games and averaged 10.2 minutes a night.

Traded in the summer of 2014 in the deal that sent Tyson Chandler back to Dallas, Larkin started 22 games for the moribund Knicks, averaging 6.2 points and three assists in 24.5 minutes per game over 76 total appearances.

Put another way—a team deep in rebuilding mode opted to not hold onto a point guard who had been a first-round pick and was just 22 years old last fall.

Sloan is a former undrafted free agent out of Texas A&M. After going unselected in 2010, Sloan played in the D-League until the Hawks signed him in December 2011.

On the Atlanta roster for almost two months, Sloan played just five games and 20 minutes before being waived in late January 2012.

Less than two weeks later, he signed a 10-day contract with the New Orleans Hornets before finishing the season with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

He made the Cavs roster in the fall of 2012, but was waived in December and had a 10-day stint in New Orleans before finishing 2012-13 in China.

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    • A successful Summer League stint with the Pacers helped him earn a roster spot in 2013 and he played out a two-year contract before signing with Brooklyn in August on a partially guaranteed ($50,000) one-year deal valued at $1.015 million.

    Sloan is much bigger (6-foot-3, 205 pounds) than Larkin (5-foot-11, 175 pounds) and was a solid defender for the Pacers, where as Larkin was a defensive disaster in Manhattan after showing some potential in Dallas.

    Sloan had a defensive rating of 101.6 for the Pacers in 2014-15 after posting a 104.8 mark in 2013-14, per NBA.com/stats.

    Larkin, by contrast, had a 100.9 D-rating in 2013-14 for the Mavs, but put up a 106.9 mark (with a 95.8 offensive rating) for the Knicks.

    While neither Larkin nor Sloan would be remotely thought of as a long-term option for the Nets, Sloan would appear to be the better backup option once Jack is back to 100 percent.

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