Monday, June 25, 2012

The Hawks Blog: Grading the 2011-2012 Season (Donald Sloan)


*Team/NBA Leaderboard ranks are qualified players only.
*The Floor Time section includes both qualified and unqualified players in rankings.
*Remember to check the Glossary at the end of this entry for stat/abbreviation explanations.



PG Donald Sloan (1st season with Hawks/1st season overall/played for NO and Cle after being waived by Hawks)
Age: 24
Draft History: Undrafted in 2010
Acquired: Signed as free agent December of 2011
2012 Salary: $136 K
2013 Contract Status: No longer with team
2012 Regular Season Grade: C

Grade Explanation: Played in only 5 of 66 games, totaling about 20 minutes out of over 3,200 team minutes. Hard to really give him any kind of a grade, but on the other hand you have to admit he filled his role when needed, didn’t hurt the team, and didn’t cost any money. I thought he deserved a passing grade. 

Overall: Sloan was signed along with a few other D-League type players early in December, and he ended up making the team as a reserve guard. The Hawks needed an additional PG because Kirk Hinrich figured to be out a month. Sloan appeared in just 5 games for a total of 20 minutes before being waived on January 26th following the return of Hinrich. He was signed to a 10-day deal by New Orleans on February 8th

Statistics: Sloan played a total of 20 minutes in 5 of the 19 games during which he was on the roster, all off the bench of course. He was 3 for 8 from the floor, 0 for 1 on 3’s, and never went to the line. He did have 6 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and a steal with 2 turnovers. 

He never played a second of CLUTCH time. The Hawks did very well against the opposition when he was on the floor, but save for a brief appearance in the final minute of a 3rd quarter in a game against Minnesota, it was all in garbage time. 

But there is something kind of awesome about Sloan’s time with the Hawks.  Because Sloan played so few minutes—during which things actually went pretty well on the court—his floor stat numbers are hilariously different from the rest of the team. 

Floor Time Stats/Team Rankings (Unqualified)
MIN%: 0% (16th)         
+/- Per 48: +43.3 (1st)
ON/OFF 48: +40.2 (1st)
+/- W-L-T: 3-1-1
WIN%: 75.0 (1st)
ON/OFF OPHP: +16.3 (1st)
ON/OFF DPHP: -29.6 (1st)
ON/OFF NPHP: +45.9 (1st)

Team Leaderboard: None. 

NBA Leaderboard: None. 

Season Review: Sloan did not appear in any of the team’s first 10 games, then played in 3 straight and 5 of the next 7, and then sat out the next 2 games before being waived. 

He played well in his first appearance of the year in mop-up time at Indiana on January 11th, the 11th game of the season. With the Hawks down 22 late in the 4th, Sloan was part of a full squadron of reserves who came in and made the final margin a more respectable looking 12 points. He scored 6 points on 3 of 4 shooting and had 4 rebounds and an assist without a turnover in 5 minutes. 

Sloan played the final 3 minutes of a blowout win over the Bobcats at home the next night, going 0 for 2 but with 2 assists and a steal. In the next game, the Hawks trailed by 12 points to the T-Wolves at home when Sloan came in with a minute to play in the 3rd. He grabbed a board but also turned the ball over and had to foul Ricky Rubio. 

That final minute of the 3rd was his only action of the game and he didn’t play in the next 2 games. Sloan came in with the other reserves and played the final 3 minutes of a loss in Philly on January 20th, with a missed 3-point try being his only mark on the score sheet. 

His 5th and final appearance with the team came the very next night at home against Cleveland. With the Hawks leading by 31 points with 6:27 to play, Larry Drew emptied the bench, and Sloan ended up playing the rest of the game, his most extensive playing time in any game with the team. He had 2 assists but missed his only shot and committed a foul and a turnover. He did not appear in the next 2 games and was waived by the team on January 26th

Sloan ended up signing a 10-day contract with the Hornets on February 8th, and after not appearing that night, he played fairly extensive minutes in the next 3 games. In 41 total minutes over those 3 games, Sloan scored 12 points on 5 for 14 shooting with 3 rebounds, 8 assists, and 2 steals, though he did commit 5 turnovers. The Hornets signed him to a second 10-day contract a few days later, but he did not appear in the final 6 games of the month, and they declined to sign him for the rest of the year when the second 10-day contract ran out. 

Sloan was signed to yet another 10-day contract in mid-March, this time with the Cavs. He played in every game for which he was on the Cavs roster. While I can’t find evidence of any other transaction involving Sloan this season, he must have been signed for the remainder of the year at some point, because he played Cleveland’s final 25 games. With the Cavs he averaged 24.3 MPG and actually made 11 starts. He shot .404 from the floor and averaged 6.6 P/G, 2.4 R/G, and 3.7 A/G with 1.7 TOV/G. 

I’m not sure what Sloan’s NBA future is. The Cavs were pretty desperate for PG play after dealing Ramon Sessions and seeing Kyrie Irving miss 10 games in April. Sloan’s problem is that he’s not really a distributor the way a true point guard should be (averaged just 2.7 A/G in college), but he’s only 6-3, and he’s not much of a shooter either (.336 3PT% in college). 

The good news for him is that he did a much better job as a distributor in his 1st NBA season (5.7 assists and 2.6 turnovers per 36 minutes) than in his final year at Texas A&M (33.2 MPG, 2.3 A/G, 2.4 TOV/G). The bad news is that he was truly awful as an outside shooter in his 1st NBA season. Sloan was just 2 for 22 on 3-pt tries with the Cavs and 2 for 25 overall from behind the arc in 2011-2012. 

2012 Postseason Grade: NA 

Grade Explanation: Sloan wasn’t on the roster and thus obviously did not appear in any playoff games for the Hawks. He was long gone by the time the playoffs rolled around. 

Statistics: NA 

Postseason Review: NA 

Moving Forward: This really doesn’t apply, as Sloan is no longer with the team. 



Stat Glossary 


Total Stats
Games Played (GP)
Games Started (GS)
Minutes Played (MIN)
Field Goal Percentage (FG%)
Three Point Field Goal Percentage (3PT%)
Free Throw Percentage (FT%)
Field Goals Made (FGM)
Field Goal Attempts (FGA)
Three Pointers Made (3PM)
Three Point Attempts (3PA)
Free Throws Made (FTM)
Free Throw Attempts (FTA)
Two Pointers Made (2PM)
Two Point Attempts (2PA)
Two Point Field Goal Percentage (2P%)
Offensive Rebounds (OR)
Defensive Rebounds (DR)
Total Rebounds (REB)
Assists (AST)
Steals (STL)
Blocks (BLK)
Turnovers (TOV)
Personal Fouls (PF)
Points (PTS)
Flagrant Fouls (Flagrants)
Technical Fouls (Techs)
Ejections (Ejections)
Foul Outs (DQ’s)
Double-Doubles (DD)
Triple-Doubles (TD)


Per Game Stats
Minutes Per Game (MPG)
Field Goals Made Per Game (FGM/G)
Field Goal Attempts Per Game (FGA/G)
Three Pointers Made Per Game (3PM/G)
Three Point Attempts Per Game (3PA/G)
Free Throws Made Per Game (FTM/G)
Free Throw Attempts Per Game (FTA/G)
Two Pointers Made Per Game (2PM/G)
Two Point Attempts Per Game (2PA/G)
Offensive Rebounds Per Game (OR/G)
Defensive Rebounds Per Game (DR/G)
Total Rebounds Per Game (R/G)
Assists Per Game (A/G)
Steals Per Game (S/G)
Blocks Per Game (B/G)
Turnovers Per Game (TOV/G)
Points Per Game (P/G)
Personal Fouls Per Game (PF/G)


Per 48 Minute Stats
Points Per 48 Minutes (P/48)
Rebounds Per 48 Minutes (R/48)
Assists Per 48 Minutes (A/48)
Steals Per 48 Minutes (S/48)
Blocks Per 48 Minutes (B/48)
Personal Fouls Per 48 Minutes (PF/48)


Ratio Stats
Assist-to-Turnover Ratio (ATO)
Steal-to-Turnover Ratio (STO)
Steal-to-Personal Foul Ratio (SPF)
Block-to-Personal Foul Ratio (BPF)
Points Scored Per Shot Attempt (PPS)



Percentage Stats
Offensive Rebound Percentage (OR%) (% of available OR player grabbed while on floor)
Defensive Rebound Percentage (DR%) (% of available DR player grabbed while on floor)
Total Rebound Percentage (R%) (% of available REB player grabbed while on floor)
Assist Percentage (A%) (% of teammate FG’s player assisted on while on floor)
Steal Percentage (S%) (% of opp’s possessions ended with steal by player while on floor)
Block Percentage (B%) (% of opp’s 2-pt FGA’s block by player while on floor)
Turnover Percentage (TOV%) (Turnovers per 100 possessions)


Hollinger Stats
True Shooting Percentage (TS%) (Takes into account value of 2-pt, 3-pt, and FT)
Assist Ratio (ARAT) (% of possessions ended with Assist by player)
Turnover Ratio (TOVRAT) (% of possessions ended with TOV by player)
Usage Rate (USG%) (% of team plays used by player while on floor)
Player Efficiency Rating (PER) (Player’s per minute statistical rating)
Value Added (VA) (# of pts player adds to team above replacement level)
Estimated Wins Added (EWA) (# of wins player adds above replacement level)


NBA Reference.com Stats
Effective Field Goal Percentage (EFG) (Adjusts for 3-pt being worth more than 2-pt)
Offensive Rating (ORAT) (Points produced by player per 100 possessions)
Defensive Rating (DRAT) (Points allowed by player per 100 possessions)
Offensive Win Shares (OWS) (# of wins contributed by player due to offense)
Defensive Win Shares (DWS) (# of wins contributed by player due to defense)
Win Shares (WS) (# of wins contributed by player)
Win Shares Per 48 Minutes (WS/48) (# of wins contributed by player per 48 minutes)


82games.com Stats
Minutes Percentage (MIN%) (% of team minutes player was on floor)
Net Plus/Minus (+/-) (Net pts for team while player on floor)
Offensive Points Per Possession (OFF-PPP) (Team Off PPP while player on floor)
Defensive Points Per Possession (DEF-PPP) (Team Def PPP while player on floor)
Net Plus/Minus Per 48 Minutes (+/- Per 48) (Team net pts per 48 of PT for player)
On Court W-L Record (+/- W-L-T) (# of gms team outscored/didn’t outscore opponent while player was on floor)
Win Percentage (WIN%) (W-L-T in win pct form)
Net Production vs. Opponent (PRO/OPP) (How player fared vs. counterpart)
Net On Court vs. Off Court Per 48 Minutes (ON/OFF 48) (Team +/- while player on/off court per 48 minutes)
Simple Rating (SIMRAT) (Taken from combo PRO/OPP and ON/OFF 48)
Net On Court vs. Off Court Offensive Points per 100 Possessions (ON/OFF OPHP) (Team’s offensive points per 100 possessions while player on/off court)
Net On Court vs. Off Court Defensive Points per 100 Possessions (ON/OFF DPHP) (Team’s defensive points per 100 possessions while player on/off court)
Net On Court vs. Off Court Points per 100 Possessions (ON/OFF NPHP) (Team’s offensive points per 100 possessions vs. team’s defensive points per 100 possessions while player on/off court)
Clutch Situations (CLUTCH) (4th quarter or overtime, less than 5 minutes left, neither team ahead by more than 5 points)


If you’re confused about a stat or abbreviation you can check this glossary. Many of the abbreviations are ones I came up with just for shorthand. If you want further explanation/info on the stats, check out the sites listed within the glossary.


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