Hornacek not trapped in triangle
The triangle offense was mentioned at the Knicks’ pre-trainingcamp press conference Friday.
But not by coach Jeff Hornacek.
And it only came up in a question, as in “Is the triangle dead?”
Yeah, it is because Phil Jackson is no longer on the sidelines proclaiming how that offense worked back when Hoboken was the prairie. And Jackson is not holding skill sessions on the triangle, which the players loved as much as fingernail removal.
“The style that guys are liking to play is a little bit different. We’re going to open it up and get some different things out there,” said Hornacek, who gets to coach the style he wants, not the style he is told he needs. “The biggest thing for us is to put our guys in the best position — if it’s postups, if it’s outside shooting 3-pointers. You look at the roster, you look at the players’ strengths and try to build from there. That’s what we’ve done all summer.”
That’s so crazy it just might work. Utilize a system designed around players’ strengths instead of cramming players into a system. Now,
the question for the Knicks is: Will they do all of this with or without Carmelo Anthony? Everything Friday indicated they expect Anthony at the start.
“All summer long, when we were going through this stuff, we had him in mind moving forward,” Hornacek said, leaving no doubt how he views Anthony.
“If you don’t think I’m not going to start him, you’re crazy, if he’s back,” said Hornacek, who spoke along with team president Steve Mills and general manager Scott Perry at the Knicks’ training facility in Tarrytown. “He’s great player.”
Hornacek favored a wide-open style while head coach of the Suns, then came to the Knicks and was told to favor a style players detested.
“Steve, Scott and I have talked [about] what we want to try to establish moving forward with these guys,” said Hornacek, who is equally concerned with the other side of the ball. “The big thing is defensive identity.”
The Knicks’ defensive identity last season said they stunk. And as good as you might be defensively, the NBA insists the team with the most points wins.
“We want to get these guys to get in the open court a little bit more, spread the floor a little bit more,” Hornacek said. “We’ve got some great shooters, so we feel that’s the way we’re moving. Every year you hit, you can forget about last year. You’re always moving forward.”
Now Hornacek can move forward doing it his way.
“Scott and I have talked about things, and I don’t think there’s one thing [he] said, ‘No, I don’t want to do that. I would do it differently,’ ” Hornacek said.