At 7-foot-5, Tacko Fall has a clear interior home on a basketball court, so why is he often seen shooting 3-pointers following Boston Celtics practices?
Assistant coach Jay Larranaga works often works with the UCF product, and says that getting comfortable from long range will only help the rest of his game.
“(Larranaga) always says if you feel comfortable shooting 3’s then the closer you get it should get easier,” Fall said, per MassLive’s John Karalis. “So it’s not necessarily that I’m shooting 3’s to go in the game and shoot 3’s, but it’s just being more comfortable with my touch and building up my range as well.”
(You can watch Fall go through some post-practice shooting here, courtesy of Karalis.)
Trainer Drew Hanlen worked with Fall this offseason to work a hitch out of the big man’s shot, and the rest is history.
“(Hanlen) really had broken down my shot because I had a terrible hitch on it.” Fall said. “From there once I got to the Celtics I started working with all the coaches like Jerome (Allen) and these last couple of months with Jay. Jay asked me to take my shot to the next level. There’s no more hitch on my free throws. He just wants to keep building from there.”
So don’t freak out, Fall isn’t going to be pulling up from deep in the middle of games with the Maine Red Claws this season. But hey, if he continues working on his touch, who knows where we’ll be this time next year.
