Posted on: Thursday, October 4, 2001

Lakers' triangle offense has steep learning curve

By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

Call it the Triangle Dynasty.

Consider: Eight of the past 11 NBA Championships — six by the Chicago Bulls and the two by the Los Angeles Lakers — have been won by teams utilizing the triple-post (aka "triangle") offense.

That alone is enough to keep newcomers at this week's Lakers training camp at Stan Sheriff Center attentive as they grapple with the simple offensive concept and all of its complex applications.

That's also the reason Lakers assistant coach Tex Winter, 79, has yet to make good on his long-delayed retirement plans.

Winter has been teaching some variation of the offensive system since he landed his first coaching job at Kansas State in 1947. In 1989, he helped Phil Jackson implement the system with the Chicago Bulls, laying the groundwork for a pair of three-peat campaigns. When Jackson took over the Lakers two years ago he made sure Winter joined him.

With it's emphasis of spacing, overloads and individual skills, the system can be adapted to the unique strengths of a given team — as evidenced by its smooth transition from Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen to Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant.

"It's a five-man team concept," Winter said. "Every player on the floor has an opportunity to touch the ball and handle the ball.

"Everything else being equal, every player on the floor has the ball 20 percent of the time," he said. "Of course everything is often not equal because some of the better skilled players will dominate the ball more than others. It's just a matter of just playing together out of the team concept."

Winter developed the triangle based on his experiences playing for Sam Berry at Southern California. Among his Trojan teammates were Bill Sharman and Alex Hannum.

"(Berry) ran what we call a center-option offense and a lot of the principals started from there," Winter said.

After graduating, Winter, who was also considered one of the top pole vaulters in the nation, took a position as assistant coach for Jack Gardner at Kansas State. The team advanced to the national championship game against Kentucky in 1951.

A year later, Winter took the head coaching position at Marquette. He spent two years there before returning to Kansas State as head coach. In fifteen years, Winter led the Wildcats to eight Big 8 championships and a No. 1 ranking in 1959.

Winter also coached at Washington, the NBA's San Diego Rockets, Northwestern University and California State Long Beach, and was an assistant under Dale Brown at Louisiana State.

Winter said the triangle offense has evolved over the years, but the basic principles of ball movement, spacing and creating overloads remain. And while the offense can help mediocre teams perform more efficiently, its true potential lies in getting the most out of the most talented players.

"One of the principles of it is it has to utilize individual talents and sometimes those individual skills bring on a new option or a new action to the offense," he says.

Winter said he's confident the triangle will still be just as effective with the NBA's new rules allowing limited zone defenses.

"The concepts of the triple-post offense were developed to attack zone defenses. They'll be some adjustments we make, but not that many."

Assistant coach Jim Cleamons says, "When we get to a basic format and send a cutter through, I would think someone would go with the cutter. When they do that, they've essentially turned that zone into a man-to-man."

After 55 years in coaching, the longest tenure of any basketball coach, Winter is not alarmed by the apparent difficulty some players have in learning his offense.

"For any motor skill, it takes time," he said. "Right now the newer guys are in the learning process and it sets its own pace. It's a different pace for different players. It's not something you can rush."

In the Lakers' first practice, Jackson said the goal is to reach a point where players can run the offense based on sight and feel, a point Winter echoes.

"When they can react instinctively instead of thinking about everything they do on the court, that's when they become effective," Winter said.

With Bryant delayed because of his grandfather's funeral and O'Neal, Derek Fisher and Mark Madsen sitting out with injuries, the Laker coaching staff has had more time to spend helping the newcomers learn the offense.

"With Shaq not in there, it's an opportunity for us to show some of the other players how they can be involved," Winter said. "When Shaq comes into our lineup of course, he's at the apex of our attack and we spend more time getting the ball inside to him."