Why the Lakers Need to Go Back to the Triangle Offense

I never thought I would ever miss Phil Jackson’s triangle offense. Having grown up in Los Angeles a USC fan, I had seen the offense since my early childhood. The same high/low post passing offense taught by Sam Barry to Tex Winter, Alex Hannum and Bill Sharman while they were players in the late 1940s.

It worked in the pre-shot clock era where slow down, grind-‘em-out games ruled before the shot clock and the three-point line.

As young children, we loved the change in the game caused primarily by the Bill Russell-led fast break Celtics and the change in athleticism beginning with the fabulous Elgin Baylor in October 1958.

When Phil Jackson and Tex Winter adapted the Chicago Bulls into a triangle offense, it looked better because of Michael Jordan. Despite Jackson’s claims about the effectiveness of the triangle, it was always Jordan breaking down the defense one-on-one that made it work. Or an armbar to Bryon Russell to win an NBA championship.

That didn’t change during Phil Jackson’s term with the Lakers. It was Shaq, Kobe and a host of players that could have started anywhere else.

Except for the occasional highlight from Robert Horry and Brian Shaw against Portland and Sacramento, it was Kobe passing to Shaq for a dunk or Kobe "going off" after Shaq fouled out in the championship series against the Pacers. Phil Jackson won because of talent, talent and more talent.

Laker fans spoiled by Magic Johnson’s Showtime were not eager to embrace the triangle, as it was simply slow and boring. But championships wash away boredom and make one forget the flaws of the triangle.

Just ask fans in Chicago, during Michael Jordan's brief retirement, and Dallas, after they hired Jim Clemmons, when the triangle failed miserably.

Many of us were eager to see the triangle put into a box and ceremoniously given a Golden Parachute with Phil Jackson’s retirement. Whoever thought that after just 30 games (18-12) the fans would miss it.

I had hoped that the Lakers would finally run baseline screens, double screens, pick and rolls and more pick and pops instead of looking like dying Sequoias standing around the thee-point line waiting for a pass.

But I forgot that Phil Jackson did not like fast point guards and either avoided them like the plague or traded them as fast as he could convince management to do so.

One need look no further than point guard Tyronn Lue, who limited Allen Iverson so effectively in the 2001 NBA Finals but was summarily discarded after the season when he became a free agent.

Now the Lakers have a lineup that couldn’t win a wheelchair race, with point guards too old and too slow to penetrate. Worse yet, they are both shooting like they have broken arms.

As much as I "love" Derek Fisher, it is time for him to hang up his sneakers and look for an arm chair to watch games. The lack of practice and conditioning during his reign as president of the National Basketball Players Association (the NBPA) during the recent strike just hastened the demise of his career.

I exclude Andrew Goudelock because he is a natural 2-guard occasionally playing the point. Yet he seems to run the offense (such as it is) better than Fisher and Blake at times.

Players like Troy Murphy and Jason Kapono haven't posted up anyone in recent memory. And what’s up with "Metta World Disaster" taking all those threes while threatening to end the season with the worst three-point shooting percentage in recent NBA history?

Gasol looks lost at times with no one to initiate a post pass since Odom was traded. Since the Lakers' guards cannot penetrate and dish, Bynum is getting pushed farther and farther out of the paint on each possession until he receives the ball as much as 15 feet from the basket.

Right now, Kobe Bryant, and maybe Matt Barnes, are the only players capable of feeding the post. The result is that Gasol and Bynum are scoring less and being criticized more and more each day.

No one, including Kobe, gets the ball where they want. And no one can penetrate and draw double-teams except Kobe and Bynum. Players just stand around either watching Kobe or waiting for a pass at the three-point line.

Bynum, still in his infancy as a basketball player (despite seven years in the league), has not learned to pass out of double-teams, a problem that will haunt him throughout his career if he does not address it in the offseason.

Perhaps, Bynum should swallow his pride and reconnect with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was a master at passing out of a double-team. I still don’t understand why Bynum decided that he no longer needed Abdul-Jabbar’s tutelage. Anyone who has watched him play feels otherwise.

As of today, Kobe Bryant has accumulated more than 5,400 assists in his career. If the Lakers had shot the ball better in the last five years, Kobe could easily have exceeded 6,000 assists by now and the Lakers could have won significantly more games. If you look at the Lakers' shooters now, it is amazing that Kobe is averaging five assists a game this year. No one on the team is even close to him.

If the Lakers returned to the triangle offense for the remainder of the season or until they can find a speedy, efficient point guard, much like Chris Paul, the team could increase their pitiful scoring by at least six to 10 points.

Until then, they will stand around watching Kobe take over games after spending the first quarter trying to get others involved.