Landale agrees to deal with Rockets
Former Phoenix Suns center Jock Landale is joining the Houston Rockets.
The 6-foot-11 unrestricted free agent agreed to a four-year deal for $32 million on Saturday, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
Landale, who’s entering his third NBA year, and played just one in Phoenix, averaged 6.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, and shot 52.8% per game last season as one of Deandre Ayton’s two backups alongside Bismack Biyombo.
In Landale’s final game for Phoenix, he replaced the rib-injured Ayton to start in the team’s season-ending home loss to eventual champion Denver Nuggets in Game 6 of the Western conference semifinals. Landale had a playoff career-high 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting and grabbed five rebounds. He reached his season-highs 17 points twice and 10 rebounds four times during the regular season. Landale’s best all-around performance last season was when he shot 8-of-11 for 17 points, added six rebounds and three assists in Phoenix’s 135-127 loss at Sacramento on March 24.
Following Landale’s rookie year with the San Antonio Spurs, Landale was traded to the Atlanta Hawks with one-time All-Star Dejounte Murray on June 30 last year. Phoenix then acquired Landale in exchange for cash considerations two days later.
Phoenix initially made a qualifying offer to make him a restricted free agent (RFA) on Wednesday. That granted the team’s management the rights to match an offer sheet given to him from another team, and matching an offer retains that player. That’s how Phoenix brought back Ayton to the team during free agency last summer when he was an RFA, after the Indiana Pacers sent him the largest offer sheet in league history of four years, $133 million.
But the team rescinded its qualifying offer to Landale to let him walk away as free agency opened on Friday.
Phoenix is strapped for cash as its payroll is deep into the luxury tax for next season. Per the new collective bargaining agreement that went into effect on Saturday (July 1), teams who are past the second apron of the luxury tax level ($179.5 million) can only offer free agents one- to two-year veteran minimum deals, which range from $1-2 million salaries.
On Friday, the team had a total of six players for its bench agree to those types of deals. Two of those players are bigs, Drew Eubanks and Chimezie Metu.