Kurt Rambis Comments on Future with Knicks, Free Agency, More

While it's unclear who will coach or play for the New York Knicks next season, one thing remains abundantly clear: The triangle offense is here to stay. 

Knicks interim coach Kurt Rambis said the following Tuesday, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News:

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It shouldn’t be a balance (between finding players to fit a system and building a system around the players). It’s whatever decision you want to make. The decision with management is to get players who fit into the system. Neither way is wrong. It’s about your mindset and what you want to do. And I think the whole process has been to get players who we feel will fit into the system. No team stays pat except the exceptional teams. Everybody is trying to improve and find ways to get better. Naturally, we’ll be one of those teams.

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The triangle has been a near-constant source of controversy since Phil Jackson took over as Knicks president in 2014. A staple of Jackson's time on the bench, the triangle has been a clear building tenant for the Hall of Famer—even if his public comments have been inconsistent. 

Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reported former coach Derek Fisher's straying from the triangle played a part in his firing. Fisher's desire to run a more traditional, pick-and-roll style of offense never "sat well" with Jackson, per Frank Isola of the New York Daily News.

Rambis, a longtime Jackson friend who has been seen almost as a Phil Lite option in New York, even ripped Fisher's lack of commitment last week, per Bondy:

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We didn’t fully immerse ourselves into practicing (the triangle while Fisher was coach), developing it, learning how to work with it, going through the breakdown drills to execute it properly. We kind of skirted over things. So the real learning process of it didn’t have enough time to take place. We also didn’t allow the players the kind of time that it needs to allow them to get comfortable with it.

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Rambis has, by all accounts, been a rather abysmal NBA head coach. He posted 32 wins in two seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Knicks are 9-18 with him leading the charge this season. His only run of success came in the lockout-shortened 1998-99 campaign, when he took the Los Angeles Lakers to a conference semifinals berth.

Rambis spoke highly of his work with Knicks players, though, per Bondy:

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I think I’ve got good communication with the players. They understand what I want. We’re not anywhere near where I would like them to be in terms of how we function at either end of the court. But we are moving in that direction. Getting up and playing the aggressive defense that I would like them to play. But again, that takes practice time, competitive scrimmages. We haven’t had enough of those.

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There is no logical reason, beyond the fact it fancies Jackson, that Rambis should keep this job beyond Wednesday. The triangle has been proved to be an outdated relic time and again over the last two seasons. Insisting on its continued implementation will not only stunt the Knicks' rebuild but could also hurt the trajectory of promising rookie Kristaps Porzingis.

Follow Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) on Twitter.