The New York Knicks are 2-4 to open the new season, and already we’re hearing rumblings of discontent from the Zen master himself, Phil Jackson. The reason for this discontent? Per Ian Begley of ESPN, Jackson is upset by how little the Knicks are using his beloved triangle offense under new head coach Jeff Hornacek.
Jackson apparently isn’t the only person in the Knicks organization who is upset by the way things are going right now.
“According to sources, some Knicks players have expressed their displeasure over the offense because they feel it doesn’t suit their personnel, particularly point guard Derrick Rose, who has traditionally thrived when using pick-and-rolls.”
Hornacek has attempted to get the Knicks’ offense to run fast and loose. He wants to create fast-break opportunities and run an up-tempo offense, which is most certainly not conducive to running the triangle. Therefore it’s not surprising the triangle hasn’t been utilized much at all this year.
Of course, that Hornacek isn’t running the triangle a ton right now shouldn’t surprise anyone. After all, when he was hired it was understood that he’d not be using it exclusively and that he wanted his offense to run, run and run some more.
Here’s what he said during training camp about the matter.
“We talked a lot about it over the summer. Phil [Jackson’s] given us the ability to run it any way we want, how we set it up,” Hornacek said during training camp. “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.”
It’s safe to say it’s not “pretty easy” right now.
At this point, it seems like nobody’s going to be 100 percent happy about how the offense is running for quite some time. There are some very talented players on New York’s offense, but it remains to be seen if they can develop the chemistry needed to sport a winning team.
Patience is needed at this time, and lots of it.