“He has all the makings to be a superstar in this league for a very long time,” Jock Landale says of his 22-year-old Rockets teammate Amen Thompson.
In a recent podcast appearance, veteran center Jock Landale shared kind words for Dillon Brooks, his teammate with the 2023-24 and 2024-25 Houston Rockets.
“He had a career year this year that nobody talks about, because we had so much other stuff going on, positively,” Landale said on the Ausmerican Aces NBA Show.
Among that “other stuff” was Houston’s elite defense, which ranked among the NBA’s top five all season. That helped launch the Rockets from a 41-41 finish in 2023-24 (No. 11 in the Western Conference) to a 52-30 record in 2024-25 (No. 2 in the West).
Brooks had a role in that defensive success, but the most important piece was second-year guard/forward Amen Thompson, who was recently named to the NBA’s All-Defensive First Team. Regarding the 22-year-old, Landale said on the same podcast:
Amen Thompson is one of a kind, mate. That dude is a freak of nature, and you guys haven’t seen anything yet.
I never give him praise to his face, cause we’ve got that kind of a relationship, but behind his back… I’m like, ‘This dude is unbelievable.
He just moves at a pace and does things you just can’t teach. And on top of that, he’s just a sponge, he soaks everything up. He’s a complete gym rat.
You’ve seen the Tyler Herro thing, we’ve seen that multiple times through the years, and in practice. He has like this light switch. He walks on the court, and it’s like, bang. He’s a psycho. He has all the makings to be a superstar in this league for a very long time.
The complete podcast interview (Ausmerican Aces NBA Show) can be viewed below.
In an extended conversation on the same YouTube channel (via a Tommy Talks episode), Landale elaborated on what he sees in Thompson:
It’s easy to forget that he only started starting when Jabari Smith Jr. went down with an injury, I think 50 games into the year. From there, he just blossomed, and it was like ‘Oh my god.’ We knew that he was good, but I don’t think anyone was like, ‘Holy shit.’
A lot of us at the end of last season were like, ‘This dude is the future of the program.’ To see that kind of come to fruition (in the playoffs), we were like ‘Yeah, this dude is something else.’
Unbelievable guy. He’s a cracking bloke. It (stardom) hasn’t gotten to his head, at all.
In 37 games since taking over a full-time starting position in January, Thompson averaged 15.9 points (55.7% FG), 9.1 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 1.7 steals, and 1.5 blocks in 36.1 minutes per game.
Thompson technically replaced Smith at power forward, though he had the versatility to play and guard virtually any position, including most possessions versus superstar Warriors guard Steph Curry (when Houston lost a hard-fought, seven-game playoff series to Golden State).
“If he’s not an All-Star next year, that’s on him,” Landale said of his expectations for Thompson, who is entering his third NBA season since being drafted at No. 4 overall in the 2023 first round.
As for Landale, the Australian big man has two years left on his contract with the Rockets at $8 million annually, though both are non-guaranteed. His 2025-26 deal becomes guaranteed if he is not waived by June 29.
Beyond providing quality depth, the 29-year-old is very well regarded as a teammate in Houston’s locker room, as shown via these conversations.
Landale was replaced by Steven Adams as Houston’s primary backup at center in the 2024-25 season. However, with Adams as an unrestricted free agent in the 2025 offseason, it’s at least plausible that Landale could regain that role in 2025-26 behind incumbent starter Alperen Sengun.