Tacko Fall is the kind of guy that everyone loves to see in the NBA. He’s been getting standing ovations when he checks into preseason games just because seeing him play makes people’s days. It’s easy to understand why people love him so much. His size makes a court of NBA players look like elementary school children, he dunks without jumping and he’s so bad at actual basketball things, it’s actually a little bit likable.
It’s obvious that Fall isn’t ready for the NBA; size only gets you so far and his skills are really underdeveloped. However, the Celtics just converted his contract to a two-way contract. This means that they intend to keep his rights and let him develop in the G-League with the Maine Red Claws. So we know that he isn’t ready yet and we know that he’s being given time to develop. This begs the question: How good can Tacko Fall become? By keeping him around, what could the Celtics be getting at best?
Fall has obvious potential on defense
It’s easy to look at him and think, “Oh, tall guy. He can be good at defense.” To be fair, it’s a pretty good argument. Even now when Fall checks into a game he changes the way the other team plays. As one would guess, his shot-blocking is fantastic. In his four-year college career with Central Florida, he averaged 2.4 blocks per game. His highlights aren’t bad either.
There’s another defensive upside to Tacko Fall. He straight up removes offensive options. By putting him in one spot on the court you take away all nearby shots. Also, since guys don’t like to post up on him he can eliminate a big that likes to play the post. This can make things much easier on a defensive scheme.
The thing is, Fall needs some serious development before he can make his living off defense in the NBA. His height means that he has a tough time reaching down, so dealing with ball handlers can be problematic. Not only that, but his footwork needs to take some serious leaps. Footwork is probably the reason that Tacko doesn’t get quite as many rebounds as he should get at his size. In his college career, he averaged just 7.7 total rebounds per game.
Another important thing to note about Fall’s defense is that he picks up fouls like crazy. He’s so big and awkward and just a little bit uncoordinated, so he sends quite a few people to the line.
If Tacko Fall improves his defense, it could make him good enough to be the second unit guy off the bench. That said, a bench player is probably Fall’s ceiling if his identity as a player becomes defense-oriented.
Fall most likely needs to develop an offensive game
At the moment, Tacko’s offense consists of positioning near the hoop, taking a high pass and dunking. To be fair, it’s very effective at his size. In fact, Tacko dunked his way to 10.1 points per game in college. The thing is, this won’t work as well in the NBA. Guys are bigger and can keep him away from the hoop. When Tacko has to dribble the ball to move, or worse, shoot, problems arise.
Fall will probably never become a great shooter. It shouldn’t surprise anyone if he never makes a single shot outside of 10 feet. The thing about his size is he might not have to. It’s incredibly easy to get him the ball inside (just throw the ball up) and once he has the ball, he only needs to learn a couple moves to become a reliable NBA scorer.
Tacko needs to be able to score outside of the dunking range. Because shooting at his size is so difficult, a 5-7 foot bank shot is reasonable to ask of him. This would expand the area of the floor where he can threaten to score by quite a bit. If Fall can reliably score inside of 10 feet (which is a long shot), he would easily be playable off the bench.
Of course, this kind of ability for him is a long way away. Much like on defense, Fall’s footwork has to improve by quite a bit in order for him to be reliable. His ball-handling isn’t quite good enough for him to be able to maneuver through defenders. Improvement on that front would allow him to score from farther away, as well as make him more viable on the pick-and-roll. With improvement on this front, Fall could certainly earn a spot in the regular rotation.
Could Tacko Fall ever become an NBA starter?
Making an NBA starting five is actually a little bit possible for Tacko Fall. It shouldn’t be expected, but it is possible.
If he gets a lot faster and more precise with his legs, it would have to be enough with his size to keep up with NBA bigs defensively. This is asking a lot of someone that lanky. Also, dribbling and shooting skills are harder to build at his size than one could ever imagine.
We also have to remember that Tacko hasn’t been playing basketball for that long. He started playing sometime after he was 16 and then played a four-year college career. Compared to the rest of the NBA, this is a very short time to learn the game mentally. It will take a ton of G-League games for him to be able to start thinking about the game at an NBA level.
So, while the answer to, “Could Tacko Fall ever become an NBA starter?” is, “Yes,” there is another question to be asked.
Will Tacko Fall ever become an NBA starter?
Likely not.
