Late on Christmas night, the Cleveland Cavaliers announced that they have claimed guard Shaun Livingston off waivers from the Washington Wizards, waiving guard Donald Sloan to clear the roster space.
Livingston, 27, has appeared in 17 games (four of which were starts) for the Wizards, averaging 3.7 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 18.8 minutes per game. The 6-foot-7, 175-pound guard out of Peoria Central (IL) High School is in his eighth NBA season and has career averages of 6.6 points on .457 shooting, 2.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 22.4 minutes over 341 games (110 starts).
In 2007, Livingston — the fourth-overall pick in 2004 — tore three of the four ligaments in his left knee, requiring 8-to-12 months off of the floor. He has played for seven other teams (one in the NBDL) since returning to the game of basketball. This past October, it was Livingston who had been outplaying Jeremy Lin in Houston, only to be released in order to, per Yahoo! Sports, avoid a point guard controversy. He was waived once again, this time by the Wizards, for Shelvin Mack.
Donald Sloan played in 20 games this season, averaging 4.1 points, 1.4 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 12.9 minutes per game. Sloan was signed by the Cavs from the Erie BayHawks of the NBA Development League on March 16, 2012 and has appeared in 53 games (11 starts) during his two-year NBA career, averaging 5.0 points, 1.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 17.5 minutes per game. He had a back-and-forth depth-chart battle with guard Jeremy Pargo, but seemed to have fallen out of favor due to the defense and scoring ability of his competitor.
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