Shaw Feels Secure With 2-Year Deal

Brian Shaw missed tai chi at the start of practice and a spirited scrimmage at the end, but otherwise rejoined the Lakers on Friday.

He sacrificed some late-morning inner peace in order to sign a two-year contract that could be worth as much as $4.5 million. Only the first year is fully guaranteed. His 2001-2002 salary would become guaranteed if Shaw, 34, is on the roster on Dec. 1.

Shaw’s base salary is $1.9 million per season. He can activate the full value of the contract by averaging at least 17 minutes a game. Last season he averaged just less than that while averaging 4.1 points. His playing time (18.5 minutes) and points (5.4) grew during the playoffs.

“It’s a relief,” Shaw said. “I was confident that everything was going to work out, that it was just a matter of time. I’m glad to be back in the fold. It was a short summer, but it was a nice summer.”

Though Shaw turned down a late-summer contract offer from the Portland Trail Blazers and then rebuffed advances by the Milwaukee Bucks, Indiana Pacers and Seattle SuperSonics, he sat out three days of training camp in negotiations that dragged longer than most expected. Among his teammates again, and only a day after Shaquille O’Neal promised he’d be angry if Shaw weren’t signed, Shaw said he understood the complexities of the deal.

The Lakers spent their $2.25 million mid-level salary exception to get him, a commitment that might ultimately cost them another big man.

“These things happen when it’s a big business like this,” Shaw said.

It also seemed that the length of the contract was as important to Shaw as the payout.

“That’s important,” he said. “Last year I feel like I contributed and I wanted to be a part of it again this year and help to defend the title. I’ve never been in a position to do that before. So, when you start to get to the age that I am--or [Ron] Harper or Horace Grant--you want as much security as you can get. I’m happy with the way everything turned out.”

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If another power forward were to become available, the Lakers still have at least two salary cap exceptions available to them.

There is the lower exception of $1.2 million and there is the traded player exception, available when a team makes a trade and takes on less salary than it gives up. It is complicated--all cap matters are--but the Lakers came out of the Glen Rice trade with an extra$3.2 million.

If, for example, the Minnesota Timberwolves chose to trade forward Joe Smith before losing him to arbitrator-mandated free agency after the season, the Lakers could take Smith’s $2.32-million salary without paring their own payroll.

General Manager Mitch Kupchak said the Shaw signing appears to be the final roster move of camp.

“But we still have our $1.2-million exception,” he said. “If anybody really badly wanted to be a Laker, would $1 million make the difference? I’m sure it would be a consideration. But I don’t think it would make the difference. If somebody were on the fence, maybe it would make a difference. But if anybody really badly wanted to be a Laker, I don’t know why they wouldn’t take the $1.2 million versus the $2.25 million.”

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With a bit more speed on the court, Coach Phil Jackson introduced some pressure defense concepts, a strategy he’d like to employ more often this season.

“As a coach I’ve always wanted to play pressure defense,” he said. “We probably played it four or five times in the course of the season for any length of time. We need to get better trapping full-court, half-court, in territories where we can trap. So, we just experimented with that.

“Horace Grant is a forward that has trapped and has been a pressure defensive forward. That gives us a quicker type of reaction time. And Robert Horry’s always been good at trapping half court.”

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The highlight of practices has been Kobe Bryant versus Isaiah Rider, in scrimmages and afterward. On Friday, after most players trudged into the locker room, Bryant and Rider stayed behind for a game of one on one.

At one point, Kupchak looked out and said, “Fun to watch, isn’t it?”

“It’s competitive,” Bryant said. “We usually match up against one another during drills. I try to take a little advantage of him because he’s not in top shape right now. I try to run him up and down court as hard as I possibly can. What we try to do is keep the intensity of practice high, to keep our focus.”

Bryant still ices his left ankle, the one he sprained during the NBA finals.

“It’s in the last stages of recovery,” he said.