The Rockets need to get under the first apron and don’t have roster room for a fourth veteran center, so it appears that Jock Landale will soon be waived.
After signing veteran center Clint Capela to a role behind mainstays Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams, it seemed apparent that Jock Landale’s time with the Houston Rockets was running out.
We now appear to have confirmation of that plan, which will need to formally take place prior to Landale’s July 7 contract guarantee date.
From Danielle Lerner of the Houston Chronicle:
Houston’s next move is to waive Landale, now superfluous given the team’s center depth, and clear his $8 million salary from the books to get under the first apron.
Landale, 29, averaged 4.8 points (52.2% FG) and 3.2 rebounds in 12.9 minutes over the past two seasons (2023-24 and 2024-25) in Houston. The Rockets recently became hard-capped at the first apron ($195.9 million in 2025-26 team salary) by using the non-taxpayer, mid-level exception to sign Dorian Finney-Smith in free agency.
As for Landale, the Rockets initially signed the Australian big man in the 2023 offseason, and he was slotted at the time as the primary backup to Sengun. But Adams’ 2024 arrival bumped Landale to third string last season, and now Houston has brought in Capela as an upgrade to that role.
Annually, Capela is also cheaper (approximately $7 million per season) than Landale, who signed a four-year, $32-million deal in 2023. Each season was non-guaranteed, making the preceding summer the decision window for general manager Rafael Stone.
In 2024, even with both Sengun and Adams, the Rockets saw enough of a potential need for a third-string center to bring Landale back. But in 2025, with the trio of Sengun, Adams, and Capela all in place, Landale’s time has run out.
Because the Rockets need to dip under the NBA’s first-apron threshold, there isn’t much of a reason to explore using Landale’s salary as a matching piece in trades, since the Rockets probably wouldn’t be able to fit in any incoming salary. And with Landale playing so infrequently last season and being nearly 30 years old, it’s unlikely that a team would trade a non-financial asset (i.e. future draft equity) to Houston for his services.
Thus, waiving him appears both inevitable and imminent. If Landale goes unclaimed on waivers via his current contract, he would then become an unrestricted free agent and available to sign with any team.
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