Derrick Caracter

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.

The Lakers had signed their second round draft picks, Devin Ebanks and Derrick Caracter, long before training camp started. Ebanks's contract was already guaranteed, while Caracter's, in a story originally reported by this website, became guaranteed if he weighed 275lbs or less on September 10th. (He did this emphatically; in fact, he damn near weighed 175lbs instead.)

Derrick Caracter

Caracter stayed out of trouble in his time at UTEP, and began developing into the player that he could always have been. He's lost weight, shaved his stupid hair cut, and doesn't have to worry about academic problems any more. Now, barring any petulance relapse, Caracter gets to just be a player. He's becoming a decent one, too.

Pick 58: The L.A. Lakers pick Derrick Caracter, the player with the most apt surname since Byron Eaton. The Denver Nuggets have been said to covet Caracter very much, and given the Lakers's aversion to young players, it is assumed that Caracter's rights will be sold to the Nuggets. But for whatever reason, they are not, and Derrick Caracter is now a Laker.

This seems strange, because Derrick Caracter really doesn't have the usual profile you'd expect in a Laker. He is, by all accounts, a prospect, a man told to leave Louisville because of his lack of dedication, weight problems, bad attitude, underwhelming play and off-court troubles. Even when he begged to stay and vowed to change, restaurant sodomiser Rick Pitino would have none of it, and banished Caracter forever.

(About twenty thousand people have already made the "Caracter issues" pun, so that's that out of the way. Ho hum.)

To his credit, Caracter has done only good things since. He transferred to UTEP, where he played by the rules and played rather well. He took too many jumpshots and turned it over an unbelievable amount of times, but Caracter stayed out of trouble, lost some weight, and was arguably the most important player on the best team in the decent Conference-USA. Caracter is big, athletic, and can finish around the basket with both finesse and brute force; if he was two inches taller, was coming straight out of high school, used to be a gymnast and was available in a draft where Jerry Krause was present, he might have gone top 5. (That's an Eddy Curry reference.)

However, Caracter is far from ready to contribute, and especially to the two time defending champion Lakers. He's a better draft pick than Chinemelu Elonu was, but Caracter has considerable ways to go before he is an NBA player. He has come a long way in the last 18 months, but it's not nearly far enough yet.

He also has a fauxhawk. Good second round for the fauxhawk.