It’s long been a criticism of Phil Jackson and the triangle offense: Of course he won, he had Michael Jordan, then Kobe Bryant with Shaquille O’Neal, then eventually peak Pau Gasol took over for Shaq. It’s a rather ridiculous criticism of Jackson — I’d like you to name the coach that won an NBA title without elite talent — but there are people who stick with that criticism of the triangle.
Add Celtics’ All-Star point guard Isaiah Thomas to that list. That would be the Thomas that played for Knicks’ coach Jeff Hornacek in a running system back in Phoenix. Via Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News.“I just think if you don’t have Kobe or Shaq or Michael Jordan, the triangle doesn’t work,” the Celtics All-Star told the Daily News....
"(Hornacek will) figure it out, even if he does do it a little bit. I see they’re trying to run it every now and then,” said Thomas, who torched the Knicks in four games last season while averaging 26.8 points and 7.5 assists. “I mean, it might work. Just hopefully not against us.”
The Knicks are running some hybrid of the triangle this season, it will be interesting to see how much it evolves over the course of the campaign. Will they run it more? Less? How much will Derrick Rose come to hate it (like many other traditional point guards have)?
The triangle offense still has a role in the NBA — virtually every team runs segments of it. The full triangle offense is a read-and-react offense — when a player gets the ball his action is based on how the defense reacts — and with the right roster, it could still win. It might need tweaks to get more threes, but the goal of the offense is spacing, it can be made to fit the modern NBA with some modification.
But yes, you need elite talent. Any system does.