Jock Landale made his presence in Atlanta known almost immediately, recording a career night after a trade deadline acquisition. Landale was on his way to Utah in a trade from the Grizzlies until he was told to “get off the [dang] plane,” and he then made the 6.5-hour drive from Memphis to Atlanta to suit up with his team.
In his debut with teammates with which he was mostly unfamiliar (save for, of course, his country-mate Dyson Daniels), he dropped 26 points on 10-for-14 shooting with five triples.
And, for good measure, he added 11 rebounds and four blocks.
From there, he settled into a role as the burly backup center who can space the floor for his team to operate. In 23 games for the Hawks, he averaged 9.1 points per game on 60% shooting from two and 39% shooting from three plus 4.1 rebounds per game on 19.4 minutes per contest — mostly coinciding with a blistering 20-6 end to the regular season for the Hawks.
But then on a fateful day on April 1st against the Orlando Magic, his season was ended prematurely due to a dirty foul from Goga Bitadze. Ultimately, he was unable to return for the Knicks series — a series where he could have battled Karl Anthony-Towns and Mitchell Robinson down low and provided screening and physicality.
“My ankle injury took a little while to get over,” Landale talked about his steps of recovery at media day. “So initially when I went back to Australia, there was a lot of time spent towards that. I’m going on 31 in a couple of weeks, so I just decided it was time for me to trim up a little bit. Worked on my body in that capacity.”
In the offseason, Landale signed a one-year, $14.1 million contract — almost doubling his career earnings with one swift stroke of the pen. With Onyeka Okongwu returning, he’ll remain the backup center for 2026-27 but it’s possible we could see lineups with the two of them sharing the frontcourt.
Defensively, he’s largely a liability in space, and frankly that won’t change this season. Once Mouhamed Gueye returns from an injury of his own, he or rookie Zuby Ejiofor could be a natural partner off the bench to help cover ground. But as a bigger body than Okongwu, he can certainly be helpful against bruising bigs throughout the 82-game grind and beyond.
Most of all, he sounds absolutely thrilled to be back in Atlanta after contemplating ending his NBA dreams and returning home to Australia.
“It meant a lot,” said Landale about the Hawks’ interest in re-signing him. “A lot of conversations with Quin [Snyder] and Onsi [Saleh] about what the team needs. How I can continue to help out. That was more towards when I was in the moment playing. I really felt as though from day one when I got here back in February, it felt like I was involved. It felt like I was valued. And they really cherished the skillset I brought and the level of maturity.”
There’s no doubt that Landale will be a welcome returnee to the Hawks for hopefully a productive and helpful season.
