Cook Expected to Get 4th Year

The Lakers are expected to exercise their option on forward Brian Cook today, Cook’s agent said Sunday, a move that would keep the third-year forward under contract through the 2006-07 season.

Cook, picked 24th by the Lakers in the 2003 draft, has averaged 5.7 points through two seasons and will be one of the first post players off the bench for Coach Phil Jackson. He will make $1.8 million next season.

“It appears they’re going to pick up the option,” said Mark Bartelstein, Cook’s agent. “Brian loves playing in L.A. He likes Phil. He’s had a good [preseason] camp. I think that’s what they’re going to do.”

If the Lakers were to decline the option, Cook would become a restricted free agent at the end of this season.

Laker General Manager Mitch Kupchak declined to comment.

The Lakers will make another roster decision today, needing to waive a player to get down to the NBA maximum of 15, with injured forward-center Corie Blount becoming a greater possibility over the last few days.

Jackson said last week he would not waive Blount because the 11-year veteran had been sidelined by knee and foot injuries, making a fair assessment of him impossible.

But Blount, who did not play last season, could be the odd man out because Jackson is now leaning toward keeping swingman Laron Profit, acquired from the Washington Wizards in the Kwame Brown trade, and Devin Green, an undrafted rookie guard from Hampton.

In exhibition play, Profit has averaged 4.7 points and Green has averaged 4.1 points. Blount did not play in any of the Lakers’ eight games.

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Jackson finally called a timeout, with Sunday living up to its reputation as a day of rest.

The Lakers had practiced 25 of 26 days until Jackson finally said otherwise, the lone exception before Sunday being a travel day from Honolulu when training camp ended Oct. 13.

“I think it’s good for us,” Kobe Bryant said. “It’s good for Laker fans to know that we’re out here busting our butts every day. We have a lot to accomplish. We’re a team that people are projecting not to make the playoffs.”

The 1999 training camp, Jackson’s first with the Lakers, had a ring of urgency to it, but in the final four years of his first Laker tenure, there were days off at nearly every preseason corner, designed to save stamina and strength for May and June.

“As we won championships, our seasons obviously became a lot longer and more extended,” Bryant said. “I think [Jackson] did that with his teams in Chicago too. His first year there I think he went extremely hard and then kind of lightened it up as the seasons got extended.”

Before Sunday, Jackson acknowledged giving more time off to players in past preseasons.

“I usually have a little space in there,” he said. “This team needs as much [work] as they can get, really.”