While there aren't any additional gains in the free agent market or trade market, for Houston Rockets fans, they are really going through an offseason that makes people excited about next season. Reed Shepard's performance in the summer league seems to have given the Rockets a glimpse of their future outside core, and during the Olympics, several Rockets players who participated in the Olympics with the national team have performed well in international competitions. Among them, Dillon Brooks, Jock Landale, and the Rockets' new signing Jack McVeigh all played very efficiently in the Olympics. With an annual salary of 8 million, returning to the Rockets lineup, and getting up wherever he falls, Udoka is facing happy troubles.
Dillon's Canada men's basketball team has already secured a top-eight spot in the Olympics, while Landale and McVeigh's Australia need to win their final group game to secure a top-eight spot. However, with both national teams in the same group, this is already the best-case scenario. From the perspective of player performance, Dillon has shown people in the previous Men's Basketball World Cup that in the FIBA tournament that encourages confrontation, he has a tough mentality and style, and can play a trustworthy performance. And in this Olympics, Landale's performance is the one that surprises the Rockets the most, because his performance will determine whether the Rockets' previous handling of his contract is correct.
Before the free agent market opened, the Rockets opted to exercise Landale's $8 million franchise option for next season to bring him back to the team's roster. This decision of the rocket management, from different periods, we will have different understandings. If you go back almost half a year ago, no one would have believed that Landale would be able to get any of the remaining three years of his $24 million contract (his salary for the next three years is completely insecure), because not only did he perform poorly, but Rockets coach Udoka had completely abandoned him. In the position of substitute center, even if he used veteran Jeff Green to force a top, Udoka was reluctant to look at Landale.
This shows how frustrating Landale's performance in the early part of the past season was. However, if the Rockets keep Landale from a post-season perspective, it must have been a no-brainer decision, as he was called upon in the final stages of the regular season to play the performance the Rockets have been hoping to see in him since signing him. Including during the 11-game winning streak, Landale's performance is obvious to all, and there is no need to elaborate too much, and he even sat in the starting position of the Rockets for a time. There's no doubt that Landale did get up wherever he fell, and he was lucky. Truth be told, if Shin Kyung hadn't been injured unexpectedly, Landale might have been waived by now, and he probably didn't know which team he signed a base salary contract with.
Landale's re-emergence is not only a redemption for himself, but at least saves his $8 million salary next season (his 800 annual salary for next season has been converted into a full guarantee), and the key is that he directly solves the Rockets' interior rotation problem. This past season, the idea of the Rockets management was good, with Shin Kyung starting and Landale coming off the bench. As a result, the latter's state at the beginning of the season was indescribable, and it was directly abandoned, even if Shen Jing made rapid progress, the Rockets still seemed to be stretched thin in terms of interior rotation, and Shen Jing would basically not play. Not only will that be difficult next season, but Rockets coach Udoka will also have happy troubles.
At the trade deadline this past season, the Rockets acquired center Steven Adams through a trade, and at that time, Landale had not yet been re-incapacitated, and it was clear to everyone what the Rockets were getting Adams for, who would be Shin Kyung's main backup next season. As a result, Landale broke out, which put the Rockets in another "trouble", after all, there is so much time in the center position, and Shen Jing as the core must have an average of about 35 minutes per game, and the remaining 10 minutes are left to Adams and Landale, and the two must be competitive. The key performance of Landale is obvious to all, Adams will be paid more than $10 million next season, and both are backup centers who are worth about 15 minutes of playing time.
Some people may say that Adams and Landale are interior players with different styles, the former has strong confrontation ability and excellent rebounding control, while Landale is a more comprehensive interior line with strategy and projection ability, and the Rockets can arrange which of the two can play at a specific time according to the opponent's lineup style of play and the coaching staff's ideas. But from a rational point of view, players need time to find their rhythm, you can't say that the time is fragmented, or you don't know if you can play, and you have been in good shape, which is a headache for Udoka.