The Triangle Offense – Early Principles (Pt. 1) by Adam Spinella
The Triangle Offense is one of the more conceptual offenses to grasp in basketball. There’s a whole terminology that goes along with it at the highest level, a set of teaching principles that go with incorporating the Triangle, and a ton of repetition is needed in order to allow players to freely engage within the Triangle offense. The objective of the Triangle offense, in its simplest form, is to have an offense where no plays need to be called – the offense will simply read what the defense gives them within the offense and play a free-flowing style off of it. Any player should be able to fill nearly any spot and feel comfortable. The offense should be somewhat interchangeable, at least between the 2 through 4 positions.
From little details about the movements of the motion in the half-court to set plays that have been run in the past by Phil Jackson, I will provide a strong breakdown of the offense over the coming days and weeks. For references and those of you who seek a fuller knowledge of the offense right away, make sure you visit Joon Kim’s blog on the Triangle Offense and his YouTube Page with lots of videos and examples.
Terminology is very important in the triangle offense. While I will use a watered-down version of the official lingo in this breakdown, there are some basics that need to be known. The strong-side will be referred to as whatever side has the ball – the side of the court without the ball is the weak-side. The pinch post is the spot near the elbow, either just below it or extended outwards. Whenever there is a strong-side triangle, the pinch post will be on the weak-side; whenever there is a weak-side triangle, the pinch post becomes the strong side.
Additionally, the offense has two components that go hand-in-hand with the strong and weak sides. There is a three-man side, where three players will be on the same side of the court – they are known as the triangle. Those three players constantly try to form a triangle, roughly 10-15 feet apart. The other two players are the two-man side, with one positioning himself in or near the pinch post, while the other is on the perimeter behind the three point line. The three men in the Triangle move off each other and the two on the two-man side work together. Whenever the ball or a player swings from one side to the other, it triggers one side to become either strong or weak, triangle or two-man. All players must be able to identify which part they are involved in so that they know the rules of how to rotate.
The Triangle Offense is essentially a three-guard, two-big man offense. Another wing can play at the 4, though most of the movement is predicated on there being two posts. The action starts with the point guard (1) dribbling the ball up the court and crossing what is known as the “moment of truth”. That is a line that goes across the floor just above the coaching hashes, and at this line the point guard will decide which wing to pass to and which triangle action to initiate. Demonstrated in frame one is the most basic action, where the PG tries to fill corner after a wing entry to 2. 5 then posts-up on the strong side. This is called a strong-side entry.
A strong-side triangle is formed with post (5), corner (1) and wing (2). There is a definitive weak side as well. This weak side features a top spot (3) and a mid-post (4), staying away from strong-side post for spacing.
2 now has the power to decide where the ball goes within this offense. He can pass to 1 or 5, continuing to play the strong side of the action (shown in blue), or he can pass to 3 or 4 and play the weak side (shown in green). There’s a basic pattern of motion that follows on each pass he makes. If he passes to the corner, 2 cuts thru and a corner ball screen emerges. If he passes to 5 in the post, both 1 and 2 wheel thru to the opposite side for a post isolation. If he passes to 3, 2 and 1 exchange and 3 and 4 play a two-man action. If 4 flashes to the elbow, 2 can pass to him, and the same occurs with the two-man action.
Check back tomorrow for Part Two of the series on the Triangle Offense, where we will break down each option for passes that the wing can make.
Coach Adam Spinella is entering his first season as an Assistant Coach at Culver Academies in Culver, IN. Spinella spent the three years prior as a Student Assistant Coach at Division III Dickinson College. The Dickinson Men’s Team advanced to two NCAA Tournaments and accumulated an overall record of 59-26 (.694) during the three-year span, with the 2013-2014 season ending in the Division III Elite Eight. A native of Bow, New Hampshire, Spinella has a keen interest in X’s and O’s, particularly in professional basketball, and skill development.
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