Jackson allowing Hornacek to reshape triangle in his own image

Phil Jackson's two-year tenure as New York Knicks president has produced hits and misses in mostly equal measure, but even the venerated former coach has admitted his triangle-offense revival has fallen flat on its face.

In running the triangle the past two seasons, the Knicks have finished 29th and 26th in offensive efficiency. In focusing on the half-court and emphasizing the post, they've ranked in the bottom six in pace, the bottom 10 in 3-point-attempt rate, and the bottom five in assist rate in both seasons. There are core principles of the triangle that permeate many of today's NBA offenses, but the Knicks have been playing a fossilized version of it.

New head coach Jeff Hornacek - a fervent pace-and-space adherent - is out to change that, and Jackson appears more than willing to let him do so. Jackson acknowledged this summer that the system needed to adapt, and early in Knicks training camp, Hornacek has been running a reformed triangle that better suits his uptempo whims.

"It's just easier buckets," Hornacek told reporters Wednesday. "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."

Hornacek's Phoenix Suns teams ranked in the top eight in pace in each of his three seasons at the helm. While he's adamant that his turbocharged triangle won't render the system unrecognizable, he stressed the importance of being adaptable, and being able to improvise.

"It's still reads, you pass it here," he 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. ...

"Phil's given us the ability to run it any way we want. How to set it up - a good working way to run it with different options. It should be pretty easy."

Knicks players confirmed that Jackson is allowing Hornacek space to figure things out; to make tweaks, experiment, and blend elements of old- and new-school approaches however he sees fit.

"Phil is here in every practice. He hasn't been involved as far as talking," said Carmelo Anthony. "He's just been letting Jeff do his thing. We're going to buy into that."