David Nwaba re-signs with the Lakers on a two-year deal

The Los Angeles Lakers have decided to re-sign David Nwaba to a two-year deal with a team option for the 2017-18 season upon the expiration of his second 10-day contract, according to Shams Charania of the Vertical.

Teams can only give players two 10-day contracts before deciding to keep them for the rest of the season or let them go, and the Lakers decided Nwaba had shown enough during his 20 days with the team to stick around for their final 12 games.

“We have been impressed by David’s focus and determination, especially on defense,” Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said in a statement. “He has a mentality about him that is infectious, and he works hard every day to improve himself. He has brought energy to both our Lakers and D-Fenders games, and has certainly earned his spot on the roster.”

Nwaba averaged 3.6 points and two rebounds while shooting 48.1 percent from the field in 14.4 minutes per game in his 10 games with the Lakers.

Those box score numbers won’t blow anyone away, but it’s worth noting that over that modest sample size the Lakers’ defense allowed 14.2 points per 100 possessions less with Nwaba on the floor than it did with him off.

This isn’t to paint Nwaba as some NBA defensive player of the year candidate, but he did demonstrate value for the Lakers and it will be interesting to see what he does over the rest of the season and in Las Vegas Summer League, as well as on their training camp roster.

All stats per NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com. Harrison Faigen is co-host of the Locked on Lakers podcast (subscribe here, or listen to our thoughts on Nwaba below), and you can follow him on Twitter at @hmfaigen.