Ronald Dupree

In some additional related bookkeeping, the reason for many of the players listed in the previous list was due to the NBA's contract guarantee date. All players on NBA rosters on or after January 10th have their contracts guaranteed for the remainder of the season (future seasons are unaffected); this also includes waivers. In-season waivers are 48 hours long and do not include weekends; therefore, with the 10th of January being a Monday, players had to be waived by close of business on Wednesday 5th in order to have cleared waivers before the deadline date.

Eleven players with not fully guaranteed contracts were waived in the hours before that deadline: Steve Novak, Damien Wilkins, Jarron Collins, John Lucas III, Ime Udoka, Lester Hudson, Ronald Dupree, Brian Skinner, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Sundiata Gaines and Rodney Carney. Twenty seven unguaranteed players survived; Delonte West, Von Wafer, Brian Scalabrine, Samardo Samuels, Manny Harris, Alonzo Gee, Brian Cardinal, Melvin Ely, Gary Forbes, Jeremy Lin, Ish Smith, A.J. Price, Ike Diogu, Luc Richard Mbah A Moute, Ben Uzoh, Didier Ilunga-Mbenga, Shawne Williams, Malik Allen, Garret Siler, Patty Mills, Sean Marks, Darnell Jackson, Chris Quinn, Sonny Weems, Jeremy Evans, Cartier Martin and Hamady Ndiaye. Players with contracts who had already become guaranteed due to specific guarantee stipulations in their contracts were Sherron Collins, Derrick Brown, Josh McRoberts, Willie Warren, Derrick Caracter, Luther Head and Joey Dorsey.

Ronald Dupree - Right when it looked as though Doop would never get back to the NBA, he did exactly that when he joined the Raptors last month. However, Dupree has been a victim to both the contract guarantee date, the Raptors record, and their depth chart - with only two point guards on the roster, both of whom are injured, any slim chance Dupree had of sticking around was stamped out to the more pressing (albeit still unfilled) need for an extra point. Dupree is still an athletic defensive specialist, but teams looking for such a player might look for a younger one.

Dupree has been in and around the NBA for the best part of a decade now, trying his best to make it back to the big dance once last time. He is a perennial training camp signee, as described here, and in accordance with prophecy, here he is again. Dupree played in Germany last season, averaging 12.5ppg and 4.0rpg for Bonn, shooting an un-Dooplike 41% from three point range. He also played for Toronto in summer league, averaging 10.0ppg and 4.0rpg in 20 minutes a night. Dupree has one advantage over Dorsey in the sense that he plays a position of greater need; while the Raptors have Linas Kleiza, Sonny Weems, DeMar Derozan and Leandro Barbizzle as regular wings at the moment, along with some lashings of Julian Wright, they have considerably more front court options. Between Andrea Bargnani, Amir Johnson, Ed Davis, David Andersen, Solomon Alabi, Reggie Evans and yet more Julian Wright, it'll be hard for Dorsey to find even a single minute. However, Dorsey provides something that no one other than Evans really provides; he's pretty bloody rugged. And he's also better.

- Ronald Dupree - Doop managed his customary training camp gig last season, signing with the Jazz, and will be looking for another. Despite his seemingly never ending career, he's only 29, and still has plenty to give. Dupree's shots from both three point range and six foot range are not significantly better than before, but he's still a strong defensive player and interested rebounder, who contributes some offensively anyway.

Ronald Dupree

This is the 29-year-old Dupree's 8th attempt at summer league. He has made NBA training camp rosters in every year prior to this one, from 2003 until 2009. He hasn't made the regular season roster every time, rustling up only 154 games played over five of those seasons, yet for seven straight years, Dupree has made it to training camp. Impressive.

Of course, a lot of players have made it to training camp seven times in a row; Derek Fisher, for example, is about to attend his fifteenth. But those players are rotation calibre players, and Dupree is not. He played more minutes in his rookie season for the dreadful 2003-04 Bulls season (893) than in his entire NBA career after that (852) - he is perhaps the very definitely of the man on the cusp. Yet despite only one guaranteed contract in his life, and with only 115 NBA minutes played in the last four and a bit years, Dupree has made it back seven straight times, going for eight. So the obvious question is, does he have a legitimate shot at making it eight here in Toronto?

He just might do.

- Ronald Dupree

Dupree went to an NBA training camp this year, marking the seventh straight year he has been in a training camp. He lost out on a spot on the Jazz team to Wesley Matthews, and after that he moved to Germany. In the German league, Doop averages 11.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game, while in the Eurocup he averages 9.4 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.4 fouls. He's shooting 41% from three point range in the German league, and 17% in the Eurocup.