The Cleveland Cavaliers made waves last week when they added restricted free agent Lauri Markkanen via sign-and-trade in a deal with the Chicago Bulls and Portland Trail Blazers, and it’s clear that was all about floor spacing/shooting.
Markkanen has had his share of injuries in recent seasons, but he is a bonafide catch-and-shoot threat that should aid Cleveland’s drivers, such as Darius Garland and Collin Sexton, and he hit 40.2 percent from three-point land in 2020-21.
So how about another 7-footer set to be on the roster, then, huh?
What am I referring to? Well, even with Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley in the fold, in particular, with Markkanen a bit, with Isaiah Hartenstein unrestricted, it did still appear that a depth 5 could still be of need for Cleveland in free agency.
To that point, while the Cavaliers do still currently have Mfiondu Kabengele on the roster, he is set to be non-guaranteed from here, and he was quite frankly, underwhelming in Las Vegas Summer League. I’d think that he could eventually be waived by the Cavs, at least in relation to a standard roster spot.
And as a follow up to that, Cleveland reportedly signed unrestricted free agent Tacko Fall via one-year, non-guaranteed deal on Tuesday night, per Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have agreed to a one-year, non-guaranteed deal with 7-foot-5 center Tacko Fall, agents Bill Duffy and Justin Haynes of @BDA_Sports told @TheAthletic @Stadium. Fall played his first two NBA seasons in Boston.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 1, 2021
From there, as one would’ve suspected, this signing is a camp deal where Fall will be able to compete for a roster spot or two-way spot, per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.
Tacko Fall, a source tells @clevelanddotcom, will be receiving a camp deal from #Cavs. Similar to Thon Maker last year. Fall will come to camp and compete for one of the final roster spots or a two-way contract. (Now I’m getting back to my vacation).
— Chris Fedor (@ChrisFedor) September 1, 2021
This Fall add was a decent low-cost/risk signing by the Cavs.
Regardless of the outlook, I do get the rationale here, with Cleveland still potentially in the market for a depth 5.
I get that Fall is not a player that’s exactly going to be aiding you from a horizontal spacing standpoint in spurts he could possibly be in games. But via camp deal, seeing what they could possibly have in the 7-foot-5 Fall from an interior standpoint and screening perspective for a few spurts is sensible.
Fall was a two-way contributor with the Boston Celtics the past two seasons, and as far as the NBA level, he’s only made 26 appearances, 19 of which came last year. That said, Fall’s defensive impact on the interior was shown throughout his spurts in games; I get that he played 6.5 minutes per game at the NBA level, though, and has had 2.7 points per contest.
However, he did have a block rate of 13.7 percent last season, and 5.3 blocks per-36 minutes, no matter how you slice it, does stand out. His 7-foot-5 frame and otherworldly 8-foot-4 wingspan does well, help on the glass, too, for what it’s worth.
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Granted, whether Fall does eventually make a push for one of Cleveland’s two-way spots, or a standard roster spot in training camp/seemingly preseason remains to be seen. He’s essentially a player that is a putback guy, and is a rolling/screening presence.
Clearly, he’s going to finish typically on the interior, and does have some nice touch inside of 10 feet, too, as he also displayed in appearances with Boston’s G League Affiliate, the Maine Red Claws in 2019-20.
But the 311-pound Fall is not a player that we’d likely see much in game action with the Cavaliers either way, with him not a shooting presence outside of that range, and him feasibly clogging lanes to some degree, let alone Cleveland’s other bigs.
In any case, for maybe a two-way player, or perhaps a Kabengele depth 5 replacement, I do understand the Cavaliers’ rationale here. And if Fall doesn’t look great in camp and/or in preseason, then they can simply cut him loose; this is essentially a no-risk signing that if it works, could provide rim protection here and there.
The 25-year-old has his limitations, so we’ll see.
Hey, it is Tac(k)o Tuesday after all, though!