Derrick Brown

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.

To win a roster spot, Darius Miles will have to go through Derrick Brown. Brown struggled to get minutes in his rookie season behind Larry Brown's love for the solid but unspectacular Stephen Graham, and while Graham has since moved on to New Jersey, Dominic McGuire has (rather unnecessarily, I feel) been brought in on a guaranteed deal to replace him. Both of those players are behind Gerald Wallace (who plays 80% of the minutes in 80% of the games), and Boris Diaw and Tyrus Thomas make for a strong power forward duo. There's little scope for Miles to get minutes, therefore, unless he can sufficiently outplay Brown that the team opts to waive him, in spite of his $200,000 guaranteed compensation.

Derrick Brown

Brown was pretty solid in his rookie year for Charlotte, averaging 3.3 points and 1.4 rebounds in less than 10 mpg, with a PER of 12.6. He would have played more were it not for Larry Brown's Larry Brown-like love for Stephen Graham - the comparable and yet inferior player played 804 minutes to Brown's 535, and in front of them both, starting small forward Gerald Wallace played 41 minutes per game. Wallace also played in a career high 76 games in spite of that. Given his fragile nature, though, those MPG might want to come down a bit. Brown is more than capable of playing a larger role.