Tiny Gallon

Jonathan Givony

Tiny Gallon showed the many strengths and weaknesses of his game at the D-League Showcase, ultimately not looking all that much different than the prospect we evaluated last April.

Showing up severely out of shape, likely even worse than he was at the pre-draft camp where he measured 302 pounds with 15% body fat, Gallon is still the same incredibly talented player who is a just a small mentality shift away from turning into a legit NBA rotation player.

Gallon is scoring prolifically, mainly on post-ups but also by knocking down the occasional jump-shot and crashing the offensive glass. He's an extremely talented post-player who can establish position with ease and shows nimble and fluid footwork in the paint, and an assortment of moves. He'll take some questionable shots from the perimeter from time to time, but will knock down enough to show that he has potential as a floor-spacer at the NBA level.

He's also one of the top-10 offensive rebounders in the D-League despite being just 19-years old, thanks to his outstanding instincts and tremendous 7-4 ½ wingspan.

Gallon is hampered significantly by his extremely poor conditioning level, particularly on the defensive end where he was mostly a non-factor at the Showcase. He gives up on plays, shows poor fundamentals, and struggles to defend opposing power forwards who can take him off the dribble due to his below average lateral quickness.

His shot-selection can also be severely lacking, as is his decision making, evidenced by the fact that he ranks as one of the most turnover prone players in the league.

Gallon will surely be back on an NBA roster at some point in his career, especially if he decides to get his conditioning in order. He's the type of player who has the talent to earn as much money as he wants to playing professional basketball.

Scott Nadler

Nearly a month after reports began circulating that Keith “Tiny” Gallon received $3,000 from a financial advisor, the 6-8 power forward decided to enter the NBA draft. This former McDonald’s All-American and Oak Hill Academy product had a solid freshman campaign despite playing for one of the most disappointing teams in the country. Although he’s anything but a lock to get drafted, he’s still an intriguing prospect who is worth looking at.

Gallon is a bit of a mixed bag at this stage. He hasn’t quite developed an identity of what kind of player he is. On one hand, he’s a powerful player with a thick frame and terrific rebounding skills. But on the other hand, he plays a lot smaller most of the time -- preferring to drift to the perimeter, handle the ball and settle for outside shots.

Offensively, Gallon looks comfortable facing up and attacking the basket. He has also showed solid footwork in the form of drop steps, spin moves and up-and-unders; although moves like that are few and far between. Gallon often settles for fadeaways or contested shots from the post. He works a lot harder than he has to to get his points. He does possess a nice shooting stroke for a player of his size and has range that extends out easily to 17 feet. It’s not out of the question to see him develop 3-point range in the near future based on his effortless stroke.

One aspect that really stood out about Gallon’s game was his prowess as a rebounder. He averaged 13 rebounds per 40 minutes, pace adjusted, which was good for 15th in our entire database . He has great hands and is aggressive when pursuing the ball, often rebounding the ball in traffic -- as evidenced by his 4.5 offensive rebounds per 40 minutes. These are impressive numbers, especially considering that he got them in the tough Big 12 conference.

Gallon’s propensity to turn the ball over is a bit discouraging. His assist-to-turnover ratio of .34 was 20th worst in our database . His tendency to drive into traffic and force tough passes caused him to turn the ball over on 24% of his possessions last season. Clearly Gallon is still trying to figure out his limitations as a basketball player.

On the defensive end is where Gallon struggles the most. He doesn’t use his size to his advantage and often allows opponents to establish good position in the post, as opposed to fighting them off the spot. He also has an average wingspan, which makes it more difficult for him to impact shots from longer players.

In addition, his lateral speed is troubling. He can be a liability defending the pick-and-roll or defending any mobile big man off the dribble. He also bites on pump fakes frequently, highlighting a lack of discipline and focus. Lastly, his desire at this end is questionable at times.

He has battled weight issues dating back to his high school days and fatigue is definitely a cause for concern. He was often hunched over or standing straight up, trying to conserve his energy. Considering the fact that Gallon will certainly not be an offensive reference, at least early on in his career—he must improve his defensive skills substantially to see minutes in the NBA down the road.

Gallon is a player who is still very much trying to figure out his niche on the basketball court, which is why it’s disappointing that his college career ended so quickly. He has solid ballhandling skills and he’s certainly nimble for his size, but he’s not capable of operating consistently from the outside just yet.

Once he learns to embrace his size and operate closer to the basket, his value as a player will surely increase. At only 19 years old, he’ll be a professional somewhere — possibly in the D-League -- and will be an interesting player to keep an eye on as he develops in the coming years.

Gallon has the option to pull his name off the early-entry list on June 14 and become automatically eligible for the 2011 draft if he so chooses. His stock is close to rock bottom at this point, and this draft is incredibly stacked at his position, so that may be something he will want to consider, rather than going undrafted. A strong year in the D-League or overseas could put him in much better position to get picked and make an NBA roster in 2011.

Gallon (#37 Scout, #31 Rivals, #11 ESPN) is another player the we have evaluated heavily in the last several months. This past weekend was, as has been the case for the Oak Hill big man, a mixed bag. Gallon found himself in foul trouble in the opening round of the tournament, so his action was limited, but the next two games the Houston native had his various skills on display.

It's one thing to hear about Gallons quick feet and good open floor speed, it's something completely different to see it up close. There's really no other way to say it; he does not move like a 300-pounder, not even close. Gallon showed a good first step when on the perimeter and a quick spin move when posting up, leading us to believe that he will be able to take most college big men off the dribble in the Big 12 next year. He showed off the range that has been written about already, nailing a handful of threes during the weekend, but as we have mentioned in the past, he tends to settle for these shots sometimes rather than working to post up.

Gallon has great hands and a soft touch around the rim, but if given space inside he is capable of putting down thunderous dunks. He really worked hard on the offensive glass, keeping a lot of possessions alive and drawing trips to the charity stripe thanks to his hustle. Defensively, he was able to capitalize on his massive size, and didn't really have to work that hard in order to be effective. At the collegiate level it is certain that he will have to get a bit quicker and more fundamentally sound in order to really be an impact player at this end of the floor. Gallon's presence will be very welcome in Norman next year, especially with the departure of Blake Griffin. Sooner fans shouldn't expect Gallon to be the kind of player their future #1 NBA draft pick was, but he can certainly step in right away and be an outstanding addition to the roster.

Tiny Gallon (#37 Scout, #31 Rivals, #14 ESPN)was one of the more unsteady prospects we tracked over the course of the week, as his performance fluctuated from absolutely fabulous to incredibly awful from day to day and practice to practice. At times he displayed an extremely versatile skill-set and phenomenal talent, while in others he looked completely disinterested and demonstrated terrible shot-selection.

Starting with the good, Gallon is clearly a highly skilled and multi faceted talent at the power forward position, blessed with a sweet stroke from the perimeter, excellent ball-handling skills, and a unique ability to create offense for himself, demonstrated with some very complicated pivot and spin-moves he showed off, sometimes combined with a pretty turnaround jumper. He has decent size, soft hands, and extremely long arms, and as his conditioning-level continues to improve (he’s made major strides in this area since last summer), his athleticism is getting better and better. His footwork is very nimble and he surprises you at times with his ability to get up around the rim, although it doesn’t appear that he’s going to be deemed a great athlete for the NBA level. He regardless put together a fantastic performance in the actual game (which is the only thing the NBA people and the general public were able to see), scoring 20 points in 21 minutes while pulling down 7 rebounds.

Moving onto the bad, Gallon’s effort really wavered from day to day, often looking very disinterested in the proceedings. He obviously has a very easy-going personality and clearly came to enjoy himself here, which is understandable considering the vacation-like atmosphere, but you would have liked to see him be a little more serious at times. He complained a lot, demonstrated terrible shot-selection, dribbled the ball excessively and forced a lot of very difficult, contested fade-away jumpers, which really took away from his main strengths.

Gallon is a very interesting player to keep an eye on regardless, as he should be one of the more productive freshmen in the country next year based on his excellent skill-level and versatility. His conditioning issues, combined with his off the court habits are things that teams will take note of, though, as its difficult to project whether he’ll revert back to his old ways once he “makes it” so to speak. If he pans out, he could be somewhat of a cross between a Kevin Love and a Glen Davis, although we’ll have to see how he continues to develop.

Keith "Tiny" Gallon (#37 Scout, #31 Rivals, #14 ESPN) has been plagued by weight problems through much of his high school career, and while he's still quite thick for his size, he looks like he's in much better shape than the last time we saw him. His new dimensions put him much closer to a weight where he's be able to consistently produce, though he still could lose some more weight to maximize his ability.

Gallon brings a peculiar skill set and style of play to the table for a player his size. This could be seen clearly in his one game here, as he hit 6 three-pointers while not doing much damage in the painted area on the offensive end, feeling content to settle for his outside shot, which obviously was working for him. Gallon's post game looked pretty raw on the few attempts we saw, and it'd be in his best interest for him to show more willingness to attack the basket on the offensive end, taking advantage of his size and good hands, even if his lack of explosiveness around the rim makes it a little bit difficult going up against a shot-blocker like Derrick Favors.

Gallon also made some good contributions on the boards here, doing a great job banging with Derrick Favors, getting inside position, boxing out, and pulling down rebounds in a crowd. Defensively, he can use some work in man-to-man, though he shows good timing coming from the weak side for shot blocks with his great length. His lateral quickness is very average, though, and his poor conditioning surely doesn’t contribute in this area.

Looking forward, he should be able to contribute early in his career for Oklahoma, but he should lose some weight to better maximize his physical abilities and improve his conditioning, while also expanding his skill set and showing more willingness to score inside on the offensive end, complementing his strong spot-up shooting.

Keith “Tiny” Gallon had a much more inspired outing in this AAU setting than he did the last time we saw him—in an (extra extra large) Oak Hill jersey at the Spalding HoopHall Classic. Gallon is still the incredibly big, out of shape, super long and strong big man he was back then, but he was able to be a lot more productive than he was last time out. Gallon is a true load in the low-post when he puts his mind to it, as he has very nimble feet, the ability to finish with either hand, good footwork, enough girth to establish position deep in the post, great hands, and excellent scoring instincts. He’s very quick off his feet, dunks absolutely everything around the rim, and is a force on the offensive glass at this level.

Gallon struggles to get up and down the floor due to his terrible conditioning, and therefore will at times spend entire possessions back on the defensive end just to conserve any energy he can. He looks a bit lazy out on the floor and plays absolutely no defense as you can probably imagine.

Gallon has some perimeter skills even-- he can knock down a catch and shoot 3-pointer and is even a pretty good passer. The problem is that he falls in love with his perimeter skills a little too much, preferring to hang out around the arc rather than use the huge advantage he has inside. Regardless, there is no question that Gallon is an extremely gifted player, and that if he lost 30-40 pounds (he’s probably a lot closer to 320 pounds than the 285 he’s listed at) he might even become a legitimate NBA prospect at some point.

”Tiny” Keith Gallon (#22 Scout, #37 Rivals--2009) had a truly uninspired performance in his matchup against Henry Sims, looking very disinterested for every second he was on the floor. He walked up and down both ends of the floor, scoring the majority of his points off of leak outs in which he never came back on the defensive end. The big-time junior was constantly pouting when he didn’t receive the ball, and was made his displeasure clear to his teammates vocally.

If you had not seen Gallon beforehand, you would think it’s downright insane that he was being recruited by some of the more elite programs in the country. Luckily, we had the chance to observe the big man on other instances and have a pretty good idea of what he can do in the occasions that he actually exerts some effort. The Houston native is exceptionally light on his feet for a player weighing close to 300 pounds, showing gorgeous footwork and great body control. Having shown the ability to score on the blocks, he also proves to be an adept passer when faced with a double team. Let the facts be straight, Gallon has the potential to be an excellent recruit when he deems necessary.

For Gallon’s sake, we hope that he develops some sort of passion for the game as his conditioning and lazy play could very well be enough to scare some schools away. Just a junior, there is plenty of time before we even begin to think of Gallon as a draft prospect, but he certainly needs to shed some pounds and develop a better work ethic if he hopes to succeed at any level.