Tacko relishes time with big club
Celtics young 7-footer progressing well
Even just one year after twoway contracts were created as a way for teams to hold onto players good enough to split their time between the NBA and the G-League, the benefit has been momentarily watered down.
There may not be a G-League season, or one where the Celtics choose to opt out. But Tacko Fall doesn’t mind spending what normally would have been time in Portland (or now a bubble) instead with the parent team. He signed a second two-way deal with the Celtics because he likes the environment.
“One the relationships that I’ve built here — whether it’s my teammates, whether it’s with the coaches, I feel very comfortable here,” the 7-foot-5 center said during a Sunday Zoom conference.
“My game grew a lot because like I said earlier, I’m in an organization where they believe in me,” said Fall. “They took a chance on me last year where a lot of teams had a lot of question marks, but they saw that I had a lot of potential. So you always want to go where you’re wanted. I know I’m wanted here, I know that they are going to help me develop my game, and they are going to utilize me the best possible way. So that was a huge factor for sure.”
In return, the Celtics absolutely feel that they did the right thing in not only bringing back Fall, but also point guard Trem
ont Waters. In the case of the former, though, Brad Stevens has already seen great strides since last season.
“I think he’s improved in every which way. I mean, he’s such a unique player from the standpoint of the ability at the rim on both ends of the floor,” said coach Stevens. “Obviously, the biggest challenge defensively is that people will try to bring him away from the rim, right, with actions or with skilled players or, you know, in late switches, etc.
“On offense, I think that he’s really improved in the little things of the skill work and the things to do before you get yourself into the position for sealing at the rim to score, instead of just being down there as a post-up,” he said. “It’s a tough balance, right? Because, our team is generally not a post-up team, just based on the strengths of our other players. And so he does a good job of balancing what some of our other bigs do with doing his strengths, and we all need to recognize that when he’s in the game and try to take advantage of that. But he’s improved. He works really hard. I think his body looks great. I feel like he’s in good shape as he’s been. And we’re glad he’s here.”
Fall, who started as a player with muscle and strength to match his improbable height and reach, is even stronger now. He’s worked on defending against the pickand-roll, where his eightfoot wingspan has helped in situations where he might have lost his man.
“Coming out of college people were making a huge deal out of pick-androll defense, saying ‘ he’s big, he can’t move,’” said Fall. “But I feel even though I’m big for my size, I can move pretty well for someone as big as me. This summer I spent a lot of time with the strength and conditioning guys, and working out this summer added strength to my legs and I was able to move and get in good shape and do it for a longer period of time. I can move better, and with my length I can recover and make different reads. That’s something I feel I’ve tremendously improved on.”
Credit Celtics assistant Jay Larranaga with guiding Fall’s offseason path.
“Second half of the season I was in Boston a lot working with Coach Jay Larranaga,” said Fall. “I went through a whole program for strength and conditioning until the season got caught short with the COVID-19, so even though you are right about playing a lot of games, but just being around the guys and picking up everything from the coaches and just seeing the guys play is really going to be helpful for me. Being on the court definitely is a plus, but at the same time, there’s a lot of things I can do as far as watching film with the coaches, I’ll definitely get my opportunities, and when I do, just take advantage of it, go out there and play hard and help us win games.
“I’m still a traditional big, per se — but coming out of college pretty much all I would do is run rim to rim and just post up in the block,” he said. “But here we run a lot of actions through the bigs, especially in the free-throw line area. So being able to handle the ball in there, being able to hand it off to the guards coming off screens, and being able to move without the ball was something I had to learn last year.
“I’ve done a lot of different things, especially with coach Jay, to be able to help with that. I think that’s one of the biggest parts I’ve improved on. Defensively we have a different system. For example, I was used to playing back, pretty much. But now I’m more up through the screen and being able to move and understanding different reads and things like that, I think I’ve improved tremendously on it. I mean I’m still a work in progress. I’m not where I want to be yet. I’m not where I know I can be at. I just need to keep working for sure.”
As such, Fall has confidence that there’s plenty of learning opportunities even if he doesn’t get to work on his game in the G-League.
“One, the opportunity. Two, the experience,” he said of the benefit from staying with the parent team. “Being around the guys, practicing with the guys day in and day out. Watching the games day in and day out. Being able to be coached by the coaches that we have, day in and day out. And the opportunity will definitely come and with that I will gain more real game experience playing in the NBA. So there’s a lot of pros in it. I’ve just got to stay patient and keep working and make sure I stay in top shape.”