Signing Tacko Fall is not going to save the 76ers from Victor Wembanyama

Many would argue that, at the age of 22, San Antonio Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama is already the face of the NBA. That is not yet a consensus viewpoint, but the 2025-26 NBA Defensive Player of the Year is a one-of-a-kind talent that prompts a great deal of attention, both from fans but also opposing teams. Some of that attention could manifest in roster transactions, as teams gear up in the frontcourt with various ways to at least attempt to slow Wembanyama.

For example, many speculated that the Los Angeles Lakers adding Walker Kessler could be directly tied to the potential of facing Wembanyama in a playoff atmosphere. The Oklahoma City Thunder, who lost to the Spurs in the 2026 Western Conference Finals after winning the NBA title the previous season, spent a lottery pick 7-foot-3 center Aday Mara. While that was a completely reasonable investment given Mara's talent level and pedigree, it was hard to completely overlook the move as at least a potential response to Wemby.

Then, on Tuesday, Sept. 1, the Philadelphia 76ers announced a trio of roster additions, and one of them gained quite a bit of attention through the lens of Wembanyama.

Tacko Fall: Wemby Stopper?

Philadelphia signed Tacko Fall, Jameer Nelson Jr., and Saint Thomas to contracts, with Fall garnering the vast majority of attention. To be quite clear, the three signings announced by the 76ers are Exhibit 10 contracts, meaning that they are non-guaranteed and geared toward Training Camp invites with the potential for G League affiliation in the future. However, that did not stop ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins from declaring that "Wemby is to blame" for the Sixers signing Fall, a 7-foot-6 center.

Plainly, this is quite silly. Fall has not played in the NBA since the 2021-22 campaign in which he appeared in 11 games for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Prior to that, he was a member of the Boston Celtics with 26 games across multiple seasons. In the meantime, Fall played abroad, including a stint with the Ningbo Rockets of the Chinese Basketball Association as his last stop. In their own press release, the 76ers noted that "Fall posted averages of 11.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks in 18.1 minutes over four seasons with the Ningbo Rockets (2025-26), Nanjing Tongxi Monkey King (2024-25), New Zealand (2024-25), Nanjing Tongxi Monkey King (2023-24), and Xinjiang Guanghui (2022-23)."

Outside of his height and recognizable public profile (because of his height), there is really no reason to be overly excited or even intrigued by this addition. The overwhelming likelihood is that Fall will be waived before the season begins, especially when taking into account that Philadelphia already has a full 15-player roster of standard contracts.

But even if he did manage to make the team in Philadelphia, the idea that Fall would function as anything like a "Wemby Stopper" is ambitious to say the least. Is there perhaps a scenario in which Fall could become useful in a specialized situation against Wembanyama? Perhaps. Still, the only scenario in which Philadelphia would be game-planning to that degree against San Antonio would be in a potential NBA Finals matchup and, well, it seems fairly unlikely that Fall would be a big factor if the Sixers progressed to that point.

Perhaps Perkins was having a bit of fun and, as noted in his tweet, there was Polymarket action perhaps marginally tied to the addition. And yes, Perkins' assertion that the Sixers are "definitely going all in" is pretty accurate given the additions of LeBron James and Jaylen Brown. Adding Tacko Fall does not change the calculus, though, and an Exhibit 10 deal on September 1st probably should not garner this level of attention.

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