UCF Knights center Tacko Fall is hard to miss, towering over everyone at 7-foot-7. That will be where his career starts, but he can prove to be much more.
Usually, Mohamed Bamba is the biggest person in the room.
The 7-foot center with the 7-foot-10 wingspan is hard to miss anywhere he goes. He towers over everyone around him. And when he is playing basketball, teams have to figure out a way to navigate his massive wingspan. As he figures out how best to position himself, he will become a terror in the paint.
But on this Monday, Mohamed Bamba is not the biggest guy in the room. As Tacko Fall saunters over toward him while he shoots free throws at the Advent Health Practice Facility, he suddenly looks small. His slight frame becomes more apparent (at least this time, it is not his fault) and he is suddenly looking up.
There is just a bigger person nearby. And Fall dwarfs Bamba, incredibly.
The two have developed a bit of a friendship. One of Tacko Fall’s teammates with the UCF Knights, Ibrahim Famouke Doumbia, is good friends with Mohamed Bamba. The two linked up throughout the season and Fall was a presence at Magic games throughout the season.
It is simply hard to miss when a 7-foot-7 man comes into a room. It is hard not to notice him on the floor. And it is hard for him not to make an impact.
That was part of what Fall had to learn during the course of his four years at UCF.
He immediately changed the team with his size alone. As he refined some of his skills and became a more reliable player doing the little things, he became an even greater weapon, leading UCF to its first at-large NCAA Tournament berth and first NCAA Tournament win in school history as a senior.
Immeasurable height
Tacko Fall tested the NBA waters two years ago as a curiosity. How could anyone ignore a 7-foot-7 center? But he knew he was not ready then. He was looking for feedback to help himself improve.
He said he learned from NBA feedback he needed to increase his stamina so he could stay on the court longer, develop a more varied offensive game and become more disciplined defensively.
His senior year — injuries marred his junior year in 2018 — he started to show a lot of that development. Fall averaged 11.1 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game. He shot 74.8 percent from the floor, his offense relegated mostly to putbacks and shots around the rim.
It was pretty easy for him to score when he could turn over his shoulder and shoot over every opponent. Fall is really tall if you have not heard.
But Fall was never a true lumbering big man like other players his size. He always had some athleticism and ability to move. He just needed a better understanding of how to move and where to be for his team.
By his senior year, he was a force, making defense easy for the entire Knights team. They were consistently one of the best defensive teams in the nation whenever Fall was on the floor.
Positioning mattered and that made the Knights one of the best defensive teams in the American. Fall knew he was not going to be able to beat most players to their spot and at least challenge their spot. His height and his NBA Draft Combine-record 8-foot-2.25 wingspan afforded him a lot of margin for error.
Fall still has limitations as a player. He is not a supreme athlete and has virtually no range offensively. His post game is still rudimentary — but it does not have to be much because of his size.
In his big matchup with Zion Williamson of the Duke Blue Devils in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, he made himself stand out even more. True, Williamson was still a tour de force in the paint. Fall was not able to completely slow him down. But Fall’s presence kept everyone else out of the paint and gave the Knights a real chance to win that game.
If Fall had not fouled out, the Knights could have scored the upset. Or at least made the layup at the end of the game that would have secured the win.
Fall’s athleticism and mobility turned heads at the NBA Draft Combine. He took an invite from the G-League Elite Camp and got invited to stay for the full combine. There he was able to display what his size could do in scrimmages and drills.
It was hard not to turn away from Fall — he stands out in a crowd after all — and he stood out on the court.
Size can matter
But that gets to the very heart of the issue with Tacko Fall and his NBA prospects.
He has improved his stamina, playing 24.9 minutes per game last year, and the Knights even played a lot more man-to-man defense with Fall on the floor last year rather than falling back into a zone.
But his play there was still limited. He has better athleticism for a player his size, but it is not athleticism enough to get out on the perimeter and defend pick and rolls. That will remain a weakness for him.
His offensive game is further developed, but still fairly simple. And he will always have to fight for his spot on the block. Fall is not about to step out on the perimeter any time soon and shoot jumpers — his free throw form at 36.2 percent got progressively worse throughout his career.
There is no notion Fall will go in the first round. He is a potential second-round pick. The kind of guy a team takes a flyer on because he has a unique skill set and physical makeup that no one can ignore.
But the NBA is going faster and nimbler. Fall would have been a clear first-round pick even a decade ago when the “can’t teach height” philosophy still reigned.
That approach is still true to some extent, of course. And it is why Fall will get a look.
But the league is more about positional versatility, shooting and mobility. Even from big men. Centers create value for themselves by their ability to defend the perimeter and step out and hit the 3-pointer.
Fall does not do either of those things. And he probably will not.
Instead, Fall will have to carve out minutes as a specialist.
The comp for success
There are certainly other players like him finding success in the NBA.
The 7-foot-7 7-foot-3 Boban Marjanovic averaged 7.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game in 11.7 minutes per game last year for the LA Clippers and Philadelphia 76ers. He has carved out a career as a game-changing center, immovable on the block, able to collect offensive rebounds and finish around the basket.
Even though Marjanovic has clear limitations, he is able to impact his minutes on the floor for the ones he gets. The team he plays for just cannot ask for much more.
Tacko Fall will be in that category of bigs. The team that takes a chance on him will have to use him in limited minutes off the bench and use him to change the pace of the game. He will not be able to step out and defend pick and rolls, but he can successfully protect the lane.
Fall knows how to use his length well. And playing without much concern for foul trouble could allow him to remain aggressive. Fall is a smart enough player that he would not waste that freedom.
But he is nowhere near as weighty as Marjanovic. Marjanovic is stockier and able to put on more muscle, turning him into an immovable object on the block. Fall has a more slender build. That makes him a bit more mobile so he can adjust if he gets beat. But that could make the specialty big role tougher for him too.
That is a map to Fall carving out a role in the NBA. He will come in for limited minutes and simply protect the lane. His role will be simple. But his size will enable him to fill that role pretty effectively.
Fall will play minutes in short bursts, like Marjanovic. A tool a team has to stifle dribble penetration from second units, especially. But someone they cannot ask to do a whole lot. The team will have to scheme around some of his shortcomings.
And it is just too difficult to do that for such a limited player for more than a quarter of the game.
The team that drafts Fall will have to understand this.
More than height
Tacko Fall is intriguing. It is no longer just for his size though.
As Fall told it when he worked out with the Magic, he used to get stopped for his size. Now people around the country know who he is because of his basketball. That is the exposure the NCAA Tournament creates.
HIs game is much more complex than just relying on his size. He has some mobility and a high basketball IQ to play solid defense on the block. He will change the game with his presence of the floor. It is impossible for him not to.
As he has developed with the UCF Knights, he has continually expanded and grown his game. He has gotten better with more experience and become a true leader on the floor.
Fall still has to work on his conditioning so he can play longer. But in the NBA, teams will only need him to play intensely for short bursts — maybe six minutes at a time — and give opponents a new look to think about.
If Fall can continue to build on his post game, which he continually did in college, he will become a valuable tool for a team off the bench.
Ultimately, it is his size that will get him on NBA radars. It is his size that will give him the opportunity to make an impact in the league for whatever time NBA teams feel comfortable throwing him out there.
Everything still stems from there.
In the changing NBA, Fall will be nothing more than a specialist. He will have to carve and succeed in that role to stick around in the NBA.
His height is too tantalizing. Some team will take him and give him that chance at some point in the second round.