Newly inducted in the basketball hall of fame Tex Winter coached basketball at the collegiate and professional level for over 50 years. Most people couldn’t tell you who he is, or just define him as Phil Jackson’s assistant, but he’s more than that.
Winter is more than a coach; he is an innovator, the creator of arguably most successful offensive system in NBA history. The triple post offense famously known as the triangle offense was successfully utilized by retire hall of fame head coach, Phil Jackson that was advised by Winter. Jackson with help from assistant coach Winter, has utilized the triangle offense to great success.
The Triangle Offensive is the brainchild of current Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Winter. The triangle is based on execution of the fundamentals and court spacing to produce the best high-percentage scoring opportunities.
It is impossible to teach the triangle or any offense if your players cannot execute basic offensive skills. At the high school level, players will struggle with the basic fundamentals of the Triangle such as spacing, crisp passing, changing speeds, cutting and most important, reading the defense.
While the triangle offense can be complex and intricate, the basic concepts can be easily adapted into, lower levels of competition. Once your players accept their roles in this offense, you’ll be on your way to success.
The simpler version of the triangle offense relies on the same basic concepts as Winter’s good spacing and movement. Players must be 15 to 18 feet apart so the defense can’t crowd an area and make a player’s passes ineffective, forcing the offense to break down. In the original triangle, all offensive movement is in reaction to what the defense does.
Most players have a difficult time just dealing with the fundamentals needed to run any offense, so don’t rely on your players being able to read defenses. Instead of being preoccupied with what the defense is doing, have your players focus on running the triangle and let the opponents attempt to read it. In the fall of 1990, Winter was keeping a watchful eye over drills during the Bulls training camp.
Eventually his eyes landed on one Michael Jordan holding a basketball. Jordan could get to any spot on the floor, get a shot off from inconceivable angles, could leap out of Chicago Stadium in a single bound, and that season would go on to win his second MVP and first NBA championship.
But as Winter watched the ball leaveJordan’s hands,Winter’s eyes became filled with disappointment. For all of his worldly talents, Jordan could not pass the ball. Not in the sense that Jordan lacked court vision. Not even in the sense that Jordan was an over dribbling, over penetrating ball hog. No, Winter’s disappointment stemmed from the fact that Michael Jordan could not throw a technically sound chest pass.
As so many others do, Paxson feels Winter has been underappreciated over the years and his entry into basketball’s Hall of Fame is long overdue. He cites that numerous other coaches have tried to implement the triangle offense, but very few have enjoyed much success as a result.
And while perhaps one can argue those teams didn’t have Jordan, they didn’t have Winter either. There has to be a lot of elements that work together, and Paxson’s hope is that coaches of the professional and collegiate ranks will study Winter’s teachings.
“I’m not sure we’ll ever see the triangle in the format that we used it, because Tex created it through knowledge he got from other coaches,” said Paxson. “But at the end of the day, it was his in the way he refined it.”
Winter triangle offense helped lead the Chicago Bulls to six championships and the Los Angelas Lakers to four championships. A combined 10 NBA championships during Winter’s tenure as NBA assistant head coach to Jackson. 2011 Hall of Fame inductee appears worthy for Mr. Winter
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