Jock Landale on Dillon Brooks’ impact in Houston: ‘One of the best teammates I’ve ever had’
“He’s completely psychotic, but it works, and he’s an integral part of the team,” Jock Landale says of Dillon Brooks, his veteran teammate in Houston.
At 39.7% from 3-point range on 6.3 attempts per game, veteran Houston Rockets forward Dillon Brooks had a elite shooting season in 2024-25. Both figures were the best of any season in his eight-year NBA career.
“He had a career year this year that nobody talks about, because we had so much other stuff going on, positively,” Rockets teammate Jock Landale said on a newly released episode of the Ausmerican Aces NBA Show.
Of course, Brooks was also a big contributor to that “other stuff.” As a hard-nosed, tough defender, Brooks was one of the key cogs in a Houston defense that ranked top five all season. That propelled the Rockets from a 41-41 finish in 2023-24 (No. 11 in the Western Conference) to a 52-30 record in 2024-25 (No. 2 in the West).
In comments on the podcast, Landale praised Brooks for his approach:
I don’t say this lightly: He’s one of the best teammates I’ve ever had in my life. Great guy. Prepares himself for war every single night. He just doesn’t care who he ticks off.
There would be games where I’d say to him, ‘DB, you’re so much better when you lock in on the game and don’t worry about all the rah rah.’ And he’ll just be like, ‘There’s a method to the madness. Just wait, just watch.’
He’s completely psychotic, but it works, and he’s an integral part of the team. We all feel the intensity drop off when he’s not around. That’s super real. He’s an enforcer, a tone setter for us. With our young group, they probably needed that a little bit.
Brooks is under contract with the Rockets for two more seasons at just over $20 million annually. Landale also has two years left on his deal at $8 million annually, though both are non-guaranteed.
Both men are now 29 years old, with each having joined the Rockets during a transformative 2023 offseason that also featured the signings of Fred VanVleet at point guard and Ime Udoka as head coach. Since then, the Rockets have gone from last place in the West to a force, and the cultural impact from those newcomers has played a vital role in that success.
This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: Jock Landale on Dillon Brooks: ‘One of the best teammates I’ve ever had’
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