Knicks embracing triangle offense, winning in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS – Writers and team officials called for a running clock or the Mercy rule Monday afternoon at the Cox Pavilion when the New York Knicks opened up a 73-33 lead over the Charlotte Hornets. The 95-72 final score pushed the Knicks to 3-0.

The team’s play has been an endorsement of the triangle offense Phil Jackson and Derek Fisher are implementing in New York. Players are sharing the ball and fluidly moving the ball to the open man, which is a refreshing departure from the slow, plodding, isolation-based offense mainly employed during the Mike Woodson era.

“What these guys are doing in terms of sharing the basketball with each other and playing as a team, those have been messages we’ve been talking about our entire time here in Las Vegas,” Fisher said. “Everything we do has to be as a team. I think it’s showing at both ends that these guys are really trusting each other.”

As Jackson walked into the elevator from the court after the game, all he said was that the team was having fun. Results are pretty meaningless in Las Vegas, but instilling proper habits and philosophies on both ends is what the team is trying to achieve.

So far, so good.

“I think everybody’s playing for each other and having fun doing it, and it shows on the scoreboard,” said forward Jeremy Tyler. “We’re winning. Everybody’s playing together.”

The players appeared genuinely enthusiastic to play the way they were playing and Tyler and his teammates embraced the team concept on offense.

“The triangle is designed for use to play as a team,” Tyler told SheridanHoops. “It was designed not for bad shots to be taken but for spacing and getting our guys to work with each other.”

That movement and motion is designed to take the onus off Carmelo Anthony, which is something Fisher specifically emphasized.

“What I’ve thought about is how much easier the game will be for him that we won’t just give him the ball and say ‘save the day,'” Fisher said. “We’ll utilize our four [other] men, we’ll utilize our offense, we’ll utilize he and the other guys around him to be successful on the offensive end, build trust, build chemistry, build a fun way to play for guys that our defense is better.”

Fisher said that Anthony wanted a balanced basketball team to be built, and the triangle offense is designed to encourage that ball movement that brings about balance and makes things easier for Anthony.

“They all want to play in that type of format and the type of system that the ball moves, the players move, everybody’s having a chance to play the game, everyone can be effective,” Fisher said. “You don’t just put him there and watch him go, which is easy to do with great players. We’ll have things going on around him wherever he catches the basketball that will allow him to make his play but also make a play for his teammates that will make the game easier for him and also raise the level of his teammates. And that way everyone is at a place of confidence and trust with each other.”

And when everyone is effective, it proves that players bought into a system, which is what Fisher and Jackson hope will happen to the Summer League Knicks and the 15 players who will open the regular season at the end of October.

“And when that happens, you see the culture change,” Fisher said. “You see the environment change. You see guys playing with the energy, the passion, the love.”Tyler talked about those things after the game as well.”It’s fun,” Tyler said. “I’m pretty sure it’s fun to watch and it’s fun to be a part of, too.”

Now all Fisher, Jackson and the rest of the Knicks’ brain trust can hope for is that this success with the triangle can translate a few months, and a few thousand miles, away from the here and now.