Phil Jackson is both a legendary player and a legendary NBA coach. His development of the triangle offense revolutionized professional basketball throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s.
However, this is 2016 and today’s NBA is all about “space and pace,” if you will. Getting up and down the court as fast as possible and spreading out the court to take advantage of mismatches is all the rage today.
Just don’t count Phil Jackson as a proponent of that or being married to his triangle offense under former player and now Knick head coach Jeff Hornacek. Some have believed the Knicks offense hasn’t been using the triangle enough and it has frustrated the man with the plan at the top.
However, in an ESPN interview with Jackie MacMullan, Jackson says that couldn’t be further from the truth.
JM: There have been reports you are frustrated that (Knicks coach) Jeff Hornacek isn’t employing the triangle offense enough. Is that the case?
PJ: No. But when they run it I want them to run it the right way. If you are going to do it, use your skills and run it the right way. I’m not frustrated at all. Derrick Rose missed three weeks of training camp (because of a civil trial). It’s totally understandable where we are as a ballclub. We have guards that do a lot of stuff off the dribble. I want them to understand they can do things off the pass. It has to be a combination.
Clearly, Jackson has an idea of how he wants his team to play, but he is also not willing to just go with the flow of the way the game is played in a new “fashionable” sense. In fact, Jackson is really all about bucking the trends of the day.
So, don’t expect to see the Knicks doing what everyone else in the NBA is doing…nor just following the triangle offense for the sake of its name.
“I don’t care about the triangle. I care about systematically playing basketball. If the spacing isn’t right, if guys are standing on top of each other, if there aren’t lanes to be provided, or rebounders available to offensively rebound the ball, or we don’t have defensive balance when a shot goes up, all of these things are fundamental basketball. I follow it.”
That is in part because of the talent they have, with Derrick Rose liking to penetrate, Carmelo Anthony loving the jump shot, and uber-talented youngster Kristaps Porzingis is still finding a way to mix his jump shooting with his height in today’s NBA landscape.
Some believed the trade to bring in Derrick Rose from the Chicago Bulls was a major gamble. However, Jackson didn’t mince words about the state of point guards available in the free agent market in the Association.
Mike Conley was the best choice as a free agent, but he’s making $30 million a year. That’s almost insane. We saw that was going to happen. We had the opportunity to play with Derrick and see if he does have enough left in the tank — he’s 27 years old — before we have to get into that (free) agent market again. It gave us an opportunity to build a team around him, Carmelo and Kris (Porzingis).
The season is still plenty young, but it will be interesting to see if Jackson’s master plan can mesh with the abilities of the players he has employed. Whatever happens, Jackson doesn’t think he’s going to be leaving at the end of the year.
JM: You have an opt-out clause in your contract after this season. Do you plan to exercise it?
PJ: I have not entertained that. I’m looking for this Knicks team to get back into a situation where they are competitive. Do I have to win a championship before I feel I’ve done the job I’ve been asked to do, which is to bring this group back to that competitive level? No, I don’t. We’re starting to make progress. I like a lot of the things we are doing here. But we’ve got more to do.
[ESPN]
