THE winningest head coach in Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) history, Earl Timothy (Tim) Cone, utilized the scheme with the Alaska franchise and won 13 titles in two decades’ service from the 1990s to the 2010s.
Great success probably “bored” the American-born Cone so much so he sought new challenges. In 2011, he moved over to Purefoods Star Hotshots (formerly known as B-Meg then San Mig Coffee) and won five more titles with the same gameplan, including a rare Triple Crown in 2013-14 and four consecutive championship finishes entering the ongoing 2014-15 Philippine (All-Filipino) Cup.
Jeffrey Cariaso, one of Cone’s former disciples on the San Mig bench, left his “sensei” to make his own trail with another San Miguel Corporation franchise during the third and final conference (Governors’ Cup) of the 2013-14 wars. Cariaso himself has since adopted the same offensive scheme with Barangay Ginebra.
The Triangle Offense is what we are talking about here. It’s an intricate system that takes time to develop but once fully mastered, it can be a deadly offensive strategy.
In the U.S. National Basketball Association (NBA), the winningest bench boss ever, Hall of Famer Phil Jackson (now the president of the New York Knickerbockers), employed the triangle offense during his distinguished career in X-ing and O-ing and snared 11 championship hardware with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers from the 1990s to the 2000s.
One of Jackson’s former Laker players, Derek Fisher, is now the rookie head tactician of the Knicks. And following his boss’ path, Fisher is implementing the triple-post offense in Gotham City.
The origin of the triangle offense is a bit unclear although retired college and professional coach Morice Fredrick (Tex) Winter is generally considered its “inventor “and/or “innovator.”
The basic concepts of the triangle offense, which is also known as the sideline triangle, were formulated nearly seven decades ago by former collegiate coach Sam Barry at the University of Southern California.
Barry introduced the ‘triangle offense” where players stand in triangular positions on either side of the basketball court to create good spacing between players and allow each one to pass to four teammates.
Barry’s initial setup employed the single triangulation setup of the center, who stands at the low post; a forward, who is at the wing; and a guard, who is at the corner, on one side of the court.
At the other side of this five-player system are the offguard, who stands at the top of the key, and the “weaker” forward, who is stationed at the weak-side high post.
Barry, who was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, ran his version of the TO with a stocky guard named Fred (Tex) Winter.
When Winter became the head coach at Kansas State University in 1953, he brought Barry’s TO and even made it more complicated with different strategies involving various advantageous moves.
Winter subsequently immortalized the “triangle offense” by writing the book “Triple-Post Offense” in 1962 while at KSU. Winter joined the professional NBA in 1971-72 as the head coach of the Houston Rockets.
After just one and a half seasons with the Rockets, however, he returned to the collegiate coaching ranks. Winter did not get back into the NBA until 1985 when he served as an assistant to head coaches Stan Albeck and Doug Collins while with the Chicago Bulls.
Through the following years, Winter continued to make refinements on the “triangle offense.” When Jackson took over the Bulls’ head mentoring reins in 1989, he not only installed the offensive strategy full time but also gave it much prominence.
Jackson’s offensive philosophy undoubtedly was greatly influenced by his long association with Winter. He hired Winter as one of his assistant coaches during his nine-year stint (1989-98) with the Bulls.
When Jackson joined the Lakers organization in 1999, he brought along Winter as one of his assistants. In the next five seasons, the Lakers reached the NBA Finals four times and won three championships (2000-2001-2002).
Following a one-year sabbatical, Jackson returned to the Lakers in 2005-06 and again, the Zen Master sought the services of Winter. The Lakers captured the NBA crown twice more in 2009 and 2010 under Jackson and Winter was a consultant for the team during the time.
The 92-year-old Winter was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011.