{"id":68458,"date":"2025-05-31T17:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T17:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/68458\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T17:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T17:09:09","slug":"jock-landale-understands-and-accepts-his-reduced-role-in-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/68458\/","title":{"rendered":"Jock Landale understands and accepts his reduced role in Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rockets center Jock Landale reacts to Steven Adams getting more minutes: \u201cIt was good for the team. You\u2019ve got to tuck your tail between your legs every now and again, and I\u2019m happy to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

After signing with the Rockets in the 2023 NBA offseason, Jock Landale finished the 2023-24 season as Houston\u2019s primary backup at center and posted quality metrics<\/a> in the process.<\/p>\n

But in 2024-25, the 29-year-old Australian was largely the third-string center behind incumbent starter Alperen Sengun and veteran backup Steven Adams.<\/p>\n

It was a bitter pill to swallow for Landale, especially when Adams struggled at times in the regular season amid his return from knee surgery. But when Adams improved late in the season and became arguably Houston\u2019s most impactful player<\/a> in the 2025 playoffs, the preferential treatment made sense.<\/p>\n

In an episode of the Tommy Talks\u00a0podcast on the Ausmerican Aces YouTube channel<\/a>, Landale explained his thought process:<\/p>\n

So much of the (regular) season is allowing guys to grow back into their roles. Unless you\u2019re in that top four or five (players), it\u2019s very interchangeable, because all the players on your roster are usually elite. There\u2019s so much politics involved and so much analytics these days, and they try things. The whole process is just to figure out what\u2019s going to be the best during the playoffs.<\/p>\n

With Steve coming back from a major injury this year, the general consensus among the team was let\u2019s give him time to get himself right, and see if we can get him back to being who Steven Adams is. To his credit, he put in a lot of work. This guy is wild with how much he works. Then you see that come together in the playoffs and him playing as well as he did.<\/p>\n

In my case, I like to think I\u2019m a humble guy, being an Australian. I\u2019ll give credit where credit\u2019s due. There were times through the year where it was hard and frustrating, and I thought perhaps I was the better option, at times. But when you really sit back and you look at the playoffs, you\u2019re like \u2018Alright, it made sense.\u2019 It was good for the boys, good for the team. You\u2019ve got to tuck your tail between your legs every now and again, and I\u2019m happy to do so.<\/p>\n

Depending on what happens with Adams in unrestricted free agency this offseason, it\u2019s possible that Landale could have a larger role in 2025-26.<\/p>\n

The Rockets have two more non-guaranteed years (at $8 million annually<\/a>) on Landale\u2019s contract, which will become guaranteed if he is not waived by June 29.<\/p>\n

In two seasons (98 games) with the Rockets, Landale has averaged 4.8 points (52.2% FG) and 3.2 rebounds in 12.9 minutes per game. The 6-foot-11 big man remains an effective backup with reliable defense and a physical presence, when given the opportunity to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve built myself into where I feel as though I\u2019m good enough to be a backup center in the NBA,\u201d Landale said. \u201cBut it was just the reality of our team. The third string was a tough pill to swallow, but I had to. It took me a little while, but around November or December, I was like, \u2018I get it.\u2019 Then you just accept it, and life becomes a hell of a lot easier. We\u2019re in very privileged positions just existing inside of the NBA, and once you realize that that\u2019s how good life is, this huge weight comes off your shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not to say that I don\u2019t have bad days, and I don\u2019t go in there pissed off about the fact that I\u2019m not playing,\u201d Landale added. \u201cI\u2019m human. But if I can sit down with the (coaching) staff before the season and they explain what the role looks like, then it\u2019s on me to just accept that. The message was pretty loud and clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

More: Jock Landale on rising Rockets star Amen Thompson: \u2018Future of the program\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rockets center Jock Landale reacts to Steven Adams getting more minutes: \u201cIt was good for the team. You\u2019ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[3503,1495,1307,748,7,292,194,4066,3690,3692,3691,70,85,6,67,61,134,132,211,876,66,83,3502,962,1928],"class_list":{"0":"post-68458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-adams","9":"tag-alperen","10":"tag-alperen-sengun","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-basketball","13":"tag-houston","14":"tag-houston-rockets","15":"tag-houstonrockets","16":"tag-jock","17":"tag-jock-landale","18":"tag-landale","19":"tag-national","20":"tag-national-sports","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-overall","24":"tag-overall-positive","25":"tag-positive","26":"tag-rockets","27":"tag-sengun","28":"tag-sports","29":"tag-sports-news","30":"tag-steven","31":"tag-steven-adams","32":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114603554543407091","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}