Lakers Re-Sign Tarik Black

AUGUST 24: More than a month and a half after agreeing to terms with Black, the Lakers have officially re-signed him, the team announced today in a press release. The delay was a result of the Lakers using all their cap room before going over the cap to sign Black using the Early Bird exception.

“Tarik is a player whose strengths are well-suited for the style of play we envision for our team going forward,” Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak said in a statement. “He plays the game with a mix of athleticism, energy, and physicality that make him a valuable frontcourt contributor in today’s NBA.”

JULY 4: The Lakers have reached an agreement on a new deal for restricted free agent center Tarik Black, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (via Twitter). According to Charania, the two sides agreed to a two-year, $12.85MM pact. Within his full report on the agreement, Charania writes that Black’s new deal will feature a trade kicker and won’t be fully guaranteed in the second year.

[RELATED: Lakers, Timofey Mozgov agree to four-year deal]

A former undrafted free agent, Black made his NBA debut with the Rockets during the 2014/15 season, appearing in 25 games (12 starts) for Houston before being cut. The Lakers nabbed Black off waivers, and he played well for Los Angeles in 2014/15, starting 27 of his 38 games with the team and averaging 7.2 PPG and 6.3 RPG, with a .589 FG%, in just 21.1 minutes per contest.

Black was used exclusively in a reserve role in 2015/16 for the Lakers, and saw his minutes reduced to just 12.7 per game, but the team apparently still liked what it saw from him enough to lock him up to a multiyear deal.

As Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets, based on the numbers, it looks like it will be an Early Bird signing, which means that the Lakers won’t have to allocate any extra cap space for Black. Currently, his cap hold is worth $1,180,431, which is the amount of his qualifying offer. The Lakers will be able to keep that number on the books until they run out of cap room (if they do so), at which point they can exceed the cap to finalize Black’s new deal.

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