LOS ANGELES, CA -- The Lakers have decided to keep Robert Sacre around for another season.
L.A. picked up its team option for the 26 year-old center out of Gonzaga. Sacre's salary for the 2015-2016 season will be somewhere just under the $1 million range.
Sacre is a 7-footer who has been with the Lakers since the 2012 draft, in which he was selected with pick 60, the final selection of the second round and the entire event. This was after five big seasons with the 'Zags in Spokane.
Last season in 2014-2015, Sacre played 16.9 minutes per game during a tough campaign for the Lakers. He finished with tallies of 4.6 points and 3.5 rebounds per contest, this coming on a 41.2% field goal conversion rate. Sacre started a career-high 18 games of the 67 he appeared in for Los Angeles' first but now inferior team.
Originally from Canada, the 260-pound big man provides a great presence inside the paint for the Lakers' second team. He right now has the role of center for the reserves in Los Angeles, but that role could expand or shrink with the moves the Lakers are able to make over the course of the 2015 offseason.
The Lakers have been talking to Ed Davis in hopes of re-signing another big man from this past NBA season of theirs. Davis is definitely not a sure thing to return, but in the event that he does, Sacre's fight for minutes will be toughened.
Los Angeles is looking to land big-market free agents LaMarcus Aldridge and Kevin Love, both who like to switch between the 4 and 5 positions. Love played at UCLA in college, not too far from Staples Center, so he may be enticed more easily, while Aldridge is even more widely targeted and could really end up in a number of cities.