It is too early to argue that the Knicks cannot get a better grasp of the triangle offense. But it may be too late to acknowledge that the narrative of Phil Jackson’s first full season as the Knicks’ president and Derek Fisher’s as coach should not have been so much about the installation of a system not ideally suited for the habits and skills of too many players, several of whom will not be around beyond this season.
What was the rush? A handful of games in, most of them unsightly, the triangle talk excessively dominates the conversation in and around the team. The subject sounds as tired as the Knicks looked on defense trying to defend Deron Williams and the Nets on Friday night in a never-close 110-99 defeat at Barclays Center.
That was the Knicks’ third straight loss. Then they scored just 35 second-half points in a 103-96 defeat to the Hawks on Saturday in Atlanta. Over the first three defeats in the skid, Carmelo Anthony shot 18 for 64 (28 percent) from the field. Against the Hawks, he scored just 6 of his 20 points after the first quarter.
New York’s Geometry Lesson
Phil Jackson has brought his famous triangle offense to New York, and the Knicks. Now everyone — including both players and fans — has to learn it.
Video by Bedel Saget, Vijai Singh and Joshua Davis on Publish Date October 28, 2014.“I just think he’s thinking too much,” said Shane Larkin, a second-year point guard, referring to Anthony’s fitting into the offensive scheme that Jackson-coached teams won 11 N.B.A. titles with.
To that point, Anthony said, with some resignation: “They say when it clicks it clicks. Right now, it’s not clicking.”
If this keeps up, that loud clicking noise will be television sets across the New York area switching from the coverage on the Knicks’ cable network.
That the Knicks are missing their injured point guard, Jose Calderon, isn’t helping. Nor is the reality that even at full offensive strength, they lack a consistent post presence, along with a serious rim protector on the defensive side, where they most times will have three or four suspect defenders on the floor. Even with Iman Shumpert, their best on-ball defender, chasing, Williams and his surgically repaired ankles drove the Knicks ragged with 29 points and 6 assists.
Amar’e Stoudemire, an old Western Conference adversary of Williams’s when he was with Utah, said, admiringly, “I’ve been him playing against him for a long time, and that’s the D-Will I remember from when I was out west.” Back then, in Phoenix, Stoudemire added, “I was at my best, too.”
He is still out there trying, scoring, but for true identity clarity, the back of Stoudemire’s jersey this season should read: expiring contract. He will be gone when it’s over, as will the injured forward Andrea Bargnani, center Samuel Dalembert and others on this makeshift roster.
So, again, was it really necessary to force-feed the triangle to this particular group, carry it into town like a holy grail and have Anthony, especially, have to convert his long-established habits to it in essentially a heartbeat? Could it not have been a more gradual process, a period for Anthony and others to familiarize themselves with the concepts without making them wear it like a school uniform every single night?
Jackson would correctly reason that the triangle at its core is merely a formation to put players in the position of executing fundamental plays with the luxury of multiple options they should, as N.B.A. players, be able to read. But most of these players are products of too much teenage showcasing, not enough practice. These Knicks are far from the early 1970s Knicks, from where Jackson’s appreciation of the game at its collective best under Coach Red Holzman was born.
These Knicks don’t have transcendent tandems like the Jackson-coached Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in Chicago or Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, multiskilled performers and hard-core competitors.
They have Anthony, re-signed for five years last summer as the franchise hub, a redoubtable scorer but, after 11 full seasons, a more enigmatic presence in adaptability. Fisher rightfully credited him for “trying to stay with the team concept.” He’s had shooting droughts before. He’s too good to keep missing. But if it gets into Anthony’s head that the triangle is inhibiting him — when the more pertinent issue is that the Knicks don’t yet have the complementary talent to maximize his chance of succeeding within it — that will benefit nobody, least of all Jackson in his efforts to move the franchise forward.
We know that Madison Square Garden has been no great magnet for leveraged free agents. For every argument made about the lure of New York, equally strong or stronger cases can be made for stars to stay where they are and make more money, or go to places offering lower taxes, fairer winter weather and, certainly right now, better postseason odds.
So this notion that Jackson and Fisher’s debut season was largely about setting a triangle foundation — replete with a Spike Lee tribute film — is not only grandiosely over the top. It may actually impede the Knicks from achieving their most pressing goals.
Those are the clear establishment of a stable front office and coaching staff, and a team of all-in players who can create a sense of overachievement by winning 40-plus games, get into the playoffs and make a 2015 free agent like Memphis center Marc Gasol — who would, in fact, be ideal for the triangle — think something good could happen for him in New York.
Instead, we hear silly, unprofessional talk about troubles with the triangle affecting the Knicks’ focus on defense. It reminds us that the system, which someday may be the best fit, is for now overdone, more likely to be used as a crutch or, worse, become a cancer that carries a risk of imperiling the future.