Phil Jackson is running the show in New York this season, and you can’t blame Knicks fans if that’s a cause for optimism. After all, Jackson could be the doctor—I say could be—who finally has the answer to what ails his former club. At least that’s what his track record when taking the reins would lead one to believe.
Jackson took over in Chicago in 1989 and lead the Bulls to the first of their six NBA titles the following season. When he picked up and moved to Los Angeles in 1999, he did one better. The Lakers won in his first season and he eventually helped one of the NBA’s signature franchises hoist five more banners to the rafters.
That’s 11 rings right there. Add the two he won as player in New York and you’ve got a baker’s dozen. Mind you, those were all accomplished as a coach or player. Jackson now finds himself in a management role that may not afford direct daily contact with his players, but he’s thought through that as well. New head coach Derek Fisher is a Jackson disciple, having won rings under the Zen Master as a player, and he’ll have a cast of the usual suspects to help him out on the bench. Jim Cleamons was an assistant for successful championship runs in both Chicago and Los Angeles, and former Laker and past NBA head coach Kurt Rambis is also along for the ride.
As surprising as Jackson’s decision to staff the team with his people (AKA not surprising at all) is the news the Knicks are planning to implement the much-ballyhooed triple-post offence, better known as “the Triangle”. Naysayers may look at Jackson’s past success and argue that it doesn’t matter what type of offence you run if it includes the likes of Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan. Well, fortunately for New York, they just happen to have one of the NBA’s best scorers in Carmelo Anthony. So, how will the new approach work in New York?
The triple-post is more than just a scheme of X’s and O’s, it’s an entire philosophy—one that involves reading and reacting to the defense, as well as unselfishness and true team play. As evidenced by the words of Knicks guard JR Smith, that mentality is going to take a little time to sink in with some “modern” players in this world of “I’m getting mine.”
“I mean, believe it or not, being the type of player I’ve been, it’s a struggle. I’m not going to lie,” Smith told ESPN.com late last week. “Trying to think about the rest of the team over myself or my scoring is something that I never really had to do before.”
Clearly, Jackson, Fisher and company are going to have work on players’ psyches as much as their ability to read and react on the court, but when I spoke with the new head coach on the walk to the bus after Friday’s 83-80 preseason loss to the Toronto Raptors in Montreal, he felt he was up for the challenge. “I’m ready for it,” he said. “Just want to keep learning.”
Despite the need to cultivate that team-first mentality, there’s no disputing the key piece of the offence will be Anthony. Put in the same role as Bryant in LA and MJ in Chicago, and equipped with tremendous scoring ability, Melo will flourish in roughly the same way those greats did in the past.
Take a look at the diagram above. Don’t think of the numbers as relating to actual positions, just focus on Carmelo Anthony set up there in the mid-post, just above the block, making up one point of, you guessed it, a triangle. In one of the offensive sets when an entry pass is made to Anthony in that position, the two players along the sideline (Nos. 1 and 3) then cut toward the basket. Passes can be made to those cutters, but with all players on the court moving except Melo—as Nos. 2 and 4 are also in motion—the set provides him with the perfect opportunity to use his one-on-one scoring prowess to get a bucket, particularly in this age of no-touch defense.
In sets like that one, Anthony will be difficult to stop. If the right teammates are on the floor alongside him and double teams come, proper ball movement will yield open shots. Simple as that. Or, simple as this (with MJ playing Melo):
Anthony should also be effective on the weak side, where there are only two players working out of the elbow area—or “pinch post” in NBA jargon. When the ball is entered there, it sets a scorer up in a place that is difficult for the defence to effectively double team but still allows an easy jumper or quick drive to the basket. If a double team does force the ball out of that player’s hands, unselfish ball movement should produce a quality shot. Again let’s turn to the tape (this time with Lamar Odom as Melo).
There are far too many wrinkles and variations to the triple-post to cover them all in this space. Simply put, though, the system Jackson learned from Fred “Tex” Winter has served him well and could do the same for Fisher. Safe to say the Knicks new coach is well versed in the scheme, but still has plenty of work to do with his team on and off the court. But his time playing for Jackson should have taught him how to work with players and change attitudes toward the benefits of being unselfish and trusting the system.
So, New York fans should feel optimistic about the new faces on the bench and in the front office. Let’s hope they feel the same way on April 15, 2015, when all 82 games are in the books.