Is There a Place in the Modern NBA for Byron Scott's Princeton Offense?
Byron Scott is one of the last practitioners of a basketball system that dates back to Princeton University in the 1930s. But is there a place for it in the modern NBA?
When training camp begins for the Los Angeles Lakers, their new head coach will let his read-and-react offense assimilate gradually, blending it in with plenty of easy pick-and-roll sets. As he said during his introductory press conference, per Lakers.com:
"The Princeton offense, you have to know how to play the game of basketball. It's like the triangle, a lot of similarities. I know that Kobe's very familiar with it. But there's different varieties to the Princeton offense. There's like five different sets that you can call the Princeton offense. And we won't get into all of them, and we won't even try to work on all of them.
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Scott has also used aspects of the Princeton with the New Jersey Nets, Memphis Grizzlies and Cleveland Cavaliers.
While the system goes back 80 years, it was reinvented by Pete Carril at Princeton during the modern era to great success—a .663 win percentage over 29 seasons.
Similarly, the triangle, or triple-post offense, was first introduced by Sam Barry at UCLA during the 1940s. One of his players at the time—Tex Winter—adopted the structure as a coach and wound up being Phil Jackson's mentor for more than 20 years.
Scott's comparison of the two systems is apt—both feature two-guard fronts, constant off-ball motion and equal opportunity scoring. He also seems to be determined to do more than just talk about similarities. Per Bill Oram of the Los Angeles Register: “Scott said his offense will have elements of the triangle offense, which Phil Jackson used to win five titles in L.A., while the secret to good defense is 'making everybody believe it's the key to winning.'”
There have been some notable collisions of the two basketball philosophies over the years, along with some interesting continuing threads.
Rick Adelman ran versions of the Princeton with the Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets and Minnesota Timberwolves. During his years with the Kings, there was an ongoing rivalry with Jackson's Lakers, including the epic 2002 Western Conference Finals in which the 61-win Kings were defeated in Game 7 on their home court in overtime.
And who did the Lakers meet in the Finals that year? None other than the New Jersey Nets, coached by Byron Scott. The Lakers and the triangle prevailed over the Princeton offense in four games straight.
Eddie Jordan had been head coach of the Kings before Adelman. Jordan happened to have an assistant by the name of Carril who taught him the Princeton offense and subsequently taught it to Adelman.
But where was Jordan in 2002? Working as a lead assistant to Scott with the Nets. A decade later, Jordan was hired by the Lakers to help Mike Brown implement the Princeton offense with a team that had championship expectations and a starting lineup of Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, Metta World Peace, Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard.
As it turned out, Brown was fired five games into the regular season. Mike D'Antoni was hired, and the Princeton went out the window in favor of a more modern small-ball movement.
But before Lakers management settled on D'Antoni, they flirted with bringing Jackson back into the fold. Would that have been an easier transition for a team whose strong suit was post-centric basketball?
Perhaps not for Nash, who thrived under D'Antoni during their halcyon days with the Phoenix Suns. This past March, during a Grantland podcast, the point guard looked back on his short-lived encounter with the Lakers' Princeton dalliance, indicating that it was too detailed and rules-bound:
"I just don't know if it was the right thing. And I think in some ways, if it had been this summer, it would never have happened because analytics probably would have been...I feel like the analytics movement has never been, like 'oh, the Princeton, that would have suited analytics.' That movement's kind of turned a corner to where it doesn't seem like it.
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As it turned out, Nash now finds himself right back where he started with the Lakers—learning the Princeton rules all over again.
But is he right—does analytics trump the effectiveness of such structured mind-sets?
One essential difference is pace—analytics advocates advancing the ball faster and making heavy use of spread shooters. Or, in the simplest of terms, easy layups and 3-point shots are good, but posting up is not.
Still, there are some commonalities—the Princeton and triangle were early proponents of positionless basketball, not unlike the evolving small-ball systems of the Miami Heat, Boston Celtics and Portland Trail Blazers.
It's also worth noting that while the Heat borrowed heavily from D'Antoni's early ground-breaking methodology with the Suns, they also placed a heavy emphasis on swarming defense—something Scott has also vowed to embrace this season with the Lakers.
Los Angeles may not be a high-scoring team in their new incarnation, but they'll try and limit dribble penetration through aggressive trapping and a team-first help mentality.
Are the ways of two-guard fronts, half-court sets and moving without the ball dead and buried?
Not entirely. It's still alive and well at the college level, and in fact, Eddie Jordan is currently running a version of the Princeton at Rutgers University.
As for the NBA, Zen Master Jackson is reassembling his triangle vision as president of the New York Knicks, with new head coach Derek Fisher and assistant coaches Kurt Rambis and Jim Cleamons.
Likewise, Steve Kerr will be using at least some triangle aspects as the new sideline leader of the Golden State Warriors, assisted by fellow Jackson acolyte Luke Walton. Additionally, Kerr's associate head coach will be Alvin Gentry who has run a hybrid Princeton/triangle corner offense in the past.
There's also Brian Shaw, who won five NBA titles as a player and assistant coach with the Lakers and is currently coaching the Denver Nuggets. And while he won't assign labels to the offense he's using, it's big on post-ups, mid-range shots and defensive responsibility.
Basketball is evolving, to be sure. But there's still a place for old-school work ethics and an inside power game. And whatever you want to call the offense Byron Scott will use this year, one thing seems evident—deliberate, post-heavy basketball will be making a comeback in Los Angeles.
Is there a place for it in the modern NBA? Only time and win-loss records will tell.
