The Los Angeles Lakers have claimed rookie forward Tarik Black off of waivers.
The Lakers on Sunday secured the rights to Black, who was let go Friday by the Houston Rockets when Houston needed to clear roster room to sign Josh Smith.
"He's a big, physical string kid who's very intelligent and we'd love to see him get here as quick as possible so we can get him in action on the practice court and then we'll go from there," coach Byron Scott said. "From some of our reports about him he's very active on the defensive end and a great communicator on the defensive end and those are two things we need from our bigs. We'll see how he translates that from Houston to here."
To make roster room for Black, L.A. simultaneously released swingman Xavier Henry, who suffered a season-ending Achilles injury at a practice in late November.
Black took to Twitter to introduce himself to Lakers fans.
To the fans of the Lakers I am honored and can't wait to get to work. Hopefully I can help this team and you guys will enjoy the process #TU
— Tarik Black (@TarikBlack25) December 28, 2014
As ESPN.com reported earlier this week, Houston offered up several players in the bottom third of the roster after securing a commitment from Smith in hopes of creating roster room that way. But the Rockets released Black when they couldn't find a palatable trade after the undrafted power forward made their roster in training camp.
In 25 games with the Rockets, Black averaged 4.2 points and 5.1 rebounds in 15.7 minutes per game. He played in 25 games for Houston this season and started 12.
The 6-foot-11 Black is expected to make his Lakers debut Tuesday night in Denver.
Information from ESPNLosAngeles.com's Arash Markazi contributed to this report.
