From watching Denver and GSW’s Championship seasons, what the Blazers can learn is that motion based offenses still win Championships in the 3-point era. Specifically, the Blazers should employ a triangle. We have skilled Centers, and big enough guards to effectively do it. Ayton and Williams would look great in the triangle or in the high post. Could one of them them with Scoot, Grant, Shae. Any of Simons, Grant or Thybulle outside it.
There are numerous combinations the Blazers could play. Most importantly, it ensures **the ball doesn’t stop and everyone keeps moving.** Really tired of watching guards isolate the last two seasons and chuck 25 foot threes. We’ve all seen evidence that it doesn’t work in the playoffs, and it doesn’t even really work in the regular season.
Sure, a guard may have a 50, 60 point night, but in a losing effort where every other player is just standing there watching, waiting for the ball to come to them so they can jack up a 3. At most maybe they’ll run a PnR.
Unlike point guard heavy PnR offenses, the triangle has proven it works in both the regular season and playoffs: Warriors, Spurs, Lakers, Bulls. The Nuggets don’t run a triangle, but they run a 2 man game where everyone is in motion. There’s tons of cutting, diving to the hop, everyone’s passing. It even turns gunners like MPJ into playmakers.
Not impressed by the offense I’m seeing this season. If the team is rebuilding and not planning to make the playoffs, let’s create winning habits now. Especially from Scoot, Simons, and Shae. It’s not about individual points per game, it’s about wins.
[https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2162125-steve-kerrs-hybrid-triangle-offense-will-unleash-stephen-curry](https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2162125-steve-kerrs-hybrid-triangle-offense-will-unleash-stephen-curry)
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12 comments
Billups have no idea how to coach. In his few years here even with the full squad.. I have seen nothing
I’m with you… But I’d settle for something where it’s clear what we are trying to do even when we fail to execute it.
I posted this in the other thread where the triangle was brought up but I guess I’ll repost here for the sake of discussion:
I don’t really think the triangle is viable anymore in today’s NBA – designing an entire offense around 45% elbow jumpers is just not mathematically viable in today’s NBA and there’s not enough spacing involved in the triangle (it’s worth noting that nobody has won anything running the triangle since 2010). I do think certain aspects of it are useful (like the Warriors cutting actions with Draymond in the high post) but running a triangle full-time in the modern NBA would almost certainly be horrible. Also Scoot learning to play off the ball is good and he shouldn’t be handling the ball 100% of the time like early career John Wall or Trae so I do agree with you there.
But I really don’t mind the PnR heavy offense – Ayton and Williams are at their best rolling to the rim, and Scoot and Ant are also at their best creating from the PnR, so I don’t have a problem with that at all.
The problem is on the other end of the floor we are losing the math battle every game by allowing a ton of shots at the rim, and wide open corner threes.
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edit:
>Unlike point guard heavy PnR offenses, the triangle has proven it works in both the regular season and playoffs: Warriors, Spurs, Lakers, Bulls.
The NBA is just too 3-pointer oriented to run the triangle today, and the Warriors are really not running a real triangle offense even with Draymond. Even Steve Kerr says in the article you linked:
>It will be influenced by the Triangle, but it will not look like the Bulls of the 90’s, I can tell you that. The game has changed and I think my philosophy would reflect that. For instance, I would be crazy to do away with the screen-and-roll with Steph—he’s devastating in it. We’ll do plenty of that.
You mean they should run an offense? Sounds too complicated for the current coaching staff.
Yes absolutely this. Especially the creating the right habits now part. I understand the cons of firing Chauncey but I have little faith he is able to instill these good habits.
I think we should run an “Air Raid” offense. Mainly because of how much I could entertain myself talking about a basketball game as if it were a football game. Then after all star break, we could start talking about basketball using terminology from Rugby or Australian Rules Football.
Blazers need the triangle. Just do it. Learn from the Phils. Make mistakes and learn. We need a championship or else I’m moving
Anyone advocating for the triangle offense in [checks notes] 2023 has done an admirable job of publicly demonstrating that they are empirically and categorically unfit to evaluate NBA coaches.
The triangle is obsolete, full stop–it’s designed to generate elbow jumpers, it produces poor spacing for today’s game, and it takes literally years to learn. And even the greatest ever triangle team, the mid-90s Bulls, really relied on Jordan in isolation for a huge portion of their offense. And let me remind you that that team had Jordan *and* Pippen, two of the greatest ever to lace them up.
I’m not here to tell you that the current offense is good. Because guess what? Like you, I’m completely unqualified to evaluate NBA coaching or offensive schemes! But I can tell you that there’s a reason nobody runs the triangle anymore (really, it’s been something like 15 years since anyone’s tried).
As for your other–less preposterous!–idea, to run a GSW-style motion offense, well, that would be cool for sure. Mike Brown has installed one in Sacramento, and it’s done wonders for the Kings. Brown, of course, was a GSW coach, though, so he’s vastly more qualified to install that offense than almost anyone else alive.
But more importantly, that offense relies to a very heavy degree on elite, fast-paced decision-making, especially from the unique Draymond Green. You say that “We have skilled Centers, and big enough guards to effectively do it. Ayton and Williams would look great in the triangle or in the high post,” but you are almost certainly wrong. Ayton is a slow decision maker with a comparatively mechanical game. Williams, though, probably could fill that role. He’s a quick processer with very fine court vision and playmaking ability. Unfortunately, he also has bad knees, and they’re not going to get better, so he’s only suitable as a complementary piece, playing limited minutes and taking more games off than you can afford to give to the fulcrum of a motion offense.
Bro you’re describing the offense high schoolers run, let’s be serious.
I don’t think the Triangle is the answer in this era, but I will settle for simply running any coherent offensive system of any kind at this point.
Blazers should employ Movement Hexagon Offense. Five guys, five points, more passing, more movement.
We have a roster that uses a lot of rookies and sophmores. We are better off playing a high pace PnR scheme not only for simplicity and to minimize turnovers, but to emphasize transition offense to wear out older teams with full court sprints.
Our guys are pro enough to get open and Ayton, Williams, and Walker are all good and willing passers. Spread PnR gets everyone involved when the bigs are skilled enough to playmake, and it generates shots much faster than triangle motion does.
Our spacing scheme should be pretty much a high triangle (if we dont have a transitional advantage) but running the clock out with motion all the time does not play to our general advantage since we dont have Steph Curry. We should shoot the first good shot, not make sophisticated attempts to create great shots.
Chauncey’s triangle-ish stuff I’ve seen so far seems like it fits the personel. We dont want to clog the paint and we like the middy. Ground passes to cutters are very difficult to place well so we should pretty much only cut for a lob option and rebounding position.
Pindowns are cool and high 3 man games are cool but we should emphasize PnR with the 3 man game on the weak side. Our offense will continue to evolve, but getting ahead of defenses is just straight up easier than manipulating defenses with motion sequences.
Obviously, we expect Ant to relocate after passing and for our guys to fight for rebounding position and transition defensive position. We aren’t going to be stationary, but we are going for as many good shots as possible, not the best shots possible.