It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that exceptionally tall Boston Celtics two way center Tacko Fall isn’t a fan of small ball.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Athletic’s Grant and Tacko Show podcast, Fall and podding partner and teammate Grant Williams debated the state of big men in the modern NBA, and the inevitable scourge of old-school, back-to-the-basket bigs came up.
That scourge being the rise of the style of play made famous by the Golden State Warriors from the mid-2010s to the present now being taken to an even greater extreme — before the pandemic, anyway — by the Houston “Pocket” Rockets, as they have come to be known.
The Grant and Tacko Show is back with our third episode! I’m joined as always by @Grant2Will @tackofall99 as we debate how traditional centers like Tacko fit in today’s game. Be sure to left us know your thoughts using #GrantAndTackohttps://t.co/tT3rQ9nD7J
— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) March 25, 2020
“I’m not going to lie,” said the 7-foot-5 big man, ” … but I hate small ball.”
“I wanted us to beat Houston so bad the other day,” he continued, referring to a 111-110 overtime loss to the Rockets which saw the ultra-small lineup deployed by the Texas franchise pull Boston out of their usual style of play.
While the interruption of play caused by the coronavirus has made testing the theory impossible for the moment, the Senegalese center may be on to something.
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As Boston learned the hard way, mirroring how Houston wants to play has mostly played into their hands, but another clue supports Fall’s distaste for meeting the style of play the Rockets are embracing with lineups not geared for pulling down rebounds.
Of the Rockets six losses since doubling down on centerless (at least, by traditional standards) basketball at the trade deadline, five came in contests Houston lost the rebounding battle.
This doesn’t mean that slower-footed bigs like Enes Kanter are the answer necessarily — we saw how the Turkish big man struggled against the Rockets in that game, for example — but lineups better-suited for corralling boards in general might be.
Fall also correctly points out it’s not a strategy that works for every team, even if it had been producing largely positive results for Houston.
“Not everyone has [Russell] Westbrook or [James] Harden on their team. It makes it so much easier for everyone around them.”
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A lot of Houston’s success ought to be attributed to the way their opponent on February 11th has changed the way they use Westbrook as a non-shooter coupled with the already-effective way Harden games the system getting to the line.
So, while Boston (and Tacko Fall) may not get another crack at the Rockets this season barring some incredible postseason luck, the UCF has some excellent points about the limits of small ball as a strategy.
Hopefully, we’ll get a chance to see some other teams learn whether the board man gets paid against the Rockets with a resumption of league activities sometime this summer as well.
To hear the rest of Fall and Williams’ discussion on the role of big men in the modern NBA, click here — or listen in the player embedded above.
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