Jackson silent as Hornacek picks up offensive pace

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 has made 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 the speedball style he honed at 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, but Hornacek believes players were afraid to make a mistake. Hornacek wants creativity and Rambis is by his side, blending the styles.

“It 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.”

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

“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, said he 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.”