There had been some recent concern for a couple of members of the Los Angeles Lakers. The deadline to release non-guaranteed players was coming up and the Lakers had three in Marcelo Huertas, Metta World Peace, and Tarik Black.
None of the three had been in the rotation for head coach Byron Scott and the team could conceivably cut ties with any of them and not owe them anything.
That turned out not to be the case, however, as all three contracts have been officially guaranteed according to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times:
Lakers officially guarantee contracts of Tarik Black, Metta World Peace and Marcelo Huertas for rest of the season. Deadline was at 2 today.
— Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) January 7, 2016
Of course, this doesn’t mean that the Lakers couldn’t release any of these players in the future if they wanted to add another player, but they would be paid the full amount of their contracts, each of which is less than $1 million.
Of the three, World Peace has seen the most action on the court and has played surprisingly well. He survived the final cut during training camp and has been a great mentor for the young players, particularly Julius Randle.
Huertas has been in and out of the rotation and while he has had some solid moments, has made more news due to a couple of bad plays that went viral. However, Black just saw his first action in 21 games in the recent loss to the Warriors, but remains someone with high potential as a back-up big man.