4 players that don't belong on the Rockets' roster

3. Jock Landale

Jock Landale is perhaps the easiest name to throw on this list. In fact, Landale wouldn’t be on the team were it not for a last-minute decision by Brook Lopez to remain with the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Rockets tried pivoting to Dwight Powell at the last minute but it was too late, as the Dallas Mavericks had already wrapped up their negotiations with the Mavs center.

As a last-ditch effort, the Rockets signed Landale to a largely non-guaranteed four-year deal. The structure of the deal makes it quite clear that they don’t intend to keep him around for long, as only the first year of the four-year contract is fully-guaranteed.

This still made sense for Landale, as he went from making $1.6 million in 2022-23 to $8 million in 2023-24. Landale will be a rotational big for the Rockets, and will largely be Alperen Sengun’s reserve.

But even in that role, the Rockets could find a better replacement than Landale, although they won’t find one as cheap as him.