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Article: Knicks unveil breakneck offense – in front of silent Phil Jackson
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nixluva
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9/28/2016  7:28 PM    LAST EDITED: 9/28/2016  7:35 PM
Knicks unveil breakneck offense – in front of silent Phil Jackson
By Marc Berman September 28, 2016 | 6:20pm


WEST POINT – Jeff Hornacek’s fast-paced vision – and version – of Phil Jackson’s triangle was on display during Wednesday’s scrimmages at Christl Arena.

Every possession – whether it was the blue-shirted first unit, the black-shirted second unit or the white-shirted third unit, attempted to race the ball downcourt at warp speed.

Jackson was making good on his promise of letting Hornacek do what he does. The Zen Master watched from the sidelines in silence.

“It’s just easier buckets,’’ Hornacek said of his speedball style he honed in Phoenix. “If you have to grind it out all the time … it’s great if you can do that, and we want to be a team that can do that at the end of games, execute plays. But if you get six easy buckets pushing the ball, it’s a big advantage.’’

Much of the triangle’s spacing will be enforced once the club settles into a halfcourt mode – with some tweaks. The ponderous triangle wore on Knicks players during the Derek Fisher/Kurt Rambis era, and Hornacek believes players were afraid to make mistakes. Hornacek wants creativity, and Rambis is by his side, blending the styles.


“It’s still reads, you pass it here,’’ Hornacek said. “Talking to our guys about it, they like that. If you’re a talented guy and like basketball, you’d like to have those options. You don’t want to be a robot. I think maybe the previous teams were trying to learn it, run it and trying to do it right. Phil always stressed to me you got to let them be creative.”

Fisher talked a similar spiel at training camp last fall, wanting to run more to start possessions, but Jackson felt he drifted too far away from the read-and-react system and didn’t communicate with the team president.

“Phil’s given us the ability to run it any way we want,’’ Hornacek said. “How to set it up – a good working way to run it with different options. It should be pretty easy.’’

Carmelo Anthony, who has taken subtle digs at the triangle, is enthused at Hornacek’s freedom.

“I just want Jeff to be comfortable and confident in what he wants to run, what he wants to accomplish, as well as communicating with Phil,’’ Anthony said. “That’s what Phil wanted, wanted him to communicate and talk to him and keep him involved in what’s going on.

“Phil is here in every practice. He hasn’t been involved as far as talking. He’s just been letting Jeff do his thing. We’re going to buy into that.”

http://nypost.com/2016/09/28/knicks-unveil-breakneck-offense-in-front-of-silent-phil-jackson/
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nixluva
Posts: 56258
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9/28/2016  7:58 PM
Hornacek can tweak the triangle: Here's Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek reiterating again that he'll have the freedom to tweak the triangle offense: "We talked a lot about it over the summer. Phil [Jackson's] given us the ability to run it anyway we want, how we set it up. We talked what we feel is a good working way to run it with different options. We'll get to all those as the year progresses, but it should be pretty easy." Jackson has told Hornacek that it's important to allow the players to feel creative in the triangle alignment, which the Knicks will use to space the floor in half-court sets.

"I think maybe the previous teams here were trying to learn it, trying to do it right," Hornacek said. "Phil always stresses to me that you got to let these guys be creative. They're out there on the court. I think the same way. When I played, coaches were saying the same thing. It's putting a little bit on them, little bit more to not go crazy and not make bad shots. But we're giving them the ability to do different things out of it. As long as they stay in that spacing."

Article: Knicks unveil breakneck offense – in front of silent Phil Jackson

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