Inside the Triangle: what players told me

Six Bulls and one opponent share what makes the offense great

Phil offers a triangle reminder. (photographer unknown)

“The triple-post offense is the backbone of this team. It’s our system, something that everybody can hang their hat on, so that they know where to go and how to operate.”

— Michael Jordan to Phil Jackson upon his return from baseball about the importance of sticking to the triangle offense

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In Chicago sports history, two offensive schemes stand above the rest: the T-formation with a man in motion and the triangle offense. Yet while Clark Shaughnessy’s “modern T” offense spread throughout not just the NFL but college football in the 1940s¹, the triangle offense never truly caught on outside of teams coached by Phil Jackson.

That’s a bit of an understatement, considering that teams coached by Phil Jackson won 11 NBA championships in 20 seasons.

But it’s a historic curiosity that one of the sport’s successful offensive systems, and arguably its most publicized, never took the league by storm. Its usage lived and died with Phil Jackson and his Hall of Fame assistant coach, the man who did not create it but perfected it, Tex Winter.

“He calls himself ‘the innovator,’” high school hoops coach and triangle acolyte Steve Fitzgerald told me in 2021. Fitzgerald learned the triangle directly from Winter, getting to watch Bulls practice in person in the fall of 1995.

“They said that the triangle is a three-quarter offense, and in the fourth quarter, it was just Jordan taking over,” Fitzgerald said. “Even when he did take over in the fourth quarter, it was still basically out of the triangle set because that allowed him to have the spacing so that he wasn't easily double teamed.”

Here is a look at what six Chicago Bulls — Hodges, Bill Cartwright, Scott Williams, Joe Kleine, Jo Jo English and Matt Steigenga — told me about running the triangle, along with comments from Kendall Gill on how to defend it.

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CRAIG HODGES

When Jerry Krause named Phil Jackson Bulls head coach before the 1989-90 season, one of Jackson’s early goals was to go all-in on assistant coach Tex Winter’s triangle offense. Among the most important players to sell the offense to teammates was Craig Hodges, who played under Winter at Long Beach State.

HODGES: When we had our first team meeting about the triangle, leaving the meeting, I’m on giddy mode because I know what’s getting ready to go down. I was with Long Beach State my freshman year, and we went from being unranked to (#15) in the country with nothing but the triangle. So I knew what the impact would be on this level. With this level of player and personnel, it would be hard for anyone to guard.

Like Tex said, we could give you the triangle handbook that he wrote, and our playbook, and you still won’t be able to guard it because it’s about how you approach us defensively. So we come out of the meeting and I’m like, “Yeah man, this is going to be dope.”

They’re like, “Yeah Hodge, you’re just doing that because Tex is your boy.”

I’m like, “Talk to me in November and early December.”

And sure enough by December it starts to click in, and immediately people are shaking their heads saying, “You were right. This is the bomb.” Because nobody could guard us. We’re playing with probably 45% less individual energy to make our offensive movement. So it was not only creative from Tex’s end but from a managerial end with the ownership and Phil to realize what the impact would be with the right complement of players.

Once everyone bought into it, including Michael, it became a strategy of mental fortitude in terms of, how can I make this system work for me against a player in this situation or this situation? That’s the beauty of the system: whatever read you make, you’ve done it before. It’s not ad-libbed. You know where you are going to get your shots on a daily basis and in games. You can work on this because it’s going to be the same shot that you have in the playoffs that you got in the regular season. I don’t think there’s been a system that’s been more productive than the triangle.

BILL CARTWRIGHT

While the Bulls were the first modern champion without an All-Star low-post player, the center was actually a critical position in the triangle offense. A pass to the center often triggered the actions. All of that cutting and spacing — much of it starts with the center. That makes Bill Cartwright and Luc Longley much more important to the team’s success than many fans, and media members, realized at the time.

CARTWRIGHT: The triangle, similar to the Princeton offense, similar to Jerry Sloan’s offense, there’s a purpose of why you do what you do. And it’s activated by the defense. If the defense plays you one way, you have an opportunity to do something else. The ball movement is dictated by the defense. It’s really remarkable. That’s why us old guys, when we’re watching basketball now, it’s a bloody nightmare with all this dribbling going on. I couldn’t imagine Red Holzman ever imagining this league with all this dribbling². But it is what it is.

So ball movement, player movement, and you’re going to get a pretty good shot. That’s what the triangle is all about. It’s greatest attribute is against pressure. The more pressure that you put on the defense and the defense puts on us, the better the offense is. It’s just a great offense. It’s really time-consuming. Tex and Phil did a great job breaking the offense down. Everybody has a spot. If you played it long enough you know every position. I find it amusing now that this offense that generated 11 championships in the NBA, nobody uses it now. It is kind of humorous.

SILVERSTEIN: What was the center’s duty on the triangle?

CARTWRIGHT: Everybody could use their skills. It didn’t have to be on the post. It could have been at the elbow. Your 4 man or 5 man could be on the wing. They could be in the corner. It’s just being able to move the ball into those five different spots, and then allow people to do what they do best.

We had Bill Wennington, and Bill Wennington’s a shooter. He can play at the elbow. I can play at the elbow. and there are different actions off of that. Maybe you get a shot. Maybe you go screen-roll. If you’re at the post maybe you’re a passer. You weren’t locked into playing one spot.

By the way, if you do catch the ball in the post, you are a passer first before you’re a scorer. It’s just that movement of the ball that’s going to generate the shot. Who knows who’s going to get a shot? But you’re going to get a good shot.

SCOTT WILLIAMS

A rookie for the first championship season, Scott Williams did not have the same transition to the triangle as most of his teammates. This was all he knew. And playing his college ball at the University of North Carolina meant he’d spent four years in a rigid offensive system: Dean Smith’s Four Corners.

WILLIAMS: It all goes back to North Carolina. Dean Smith is responsible for my success in the NBA, especially with the Bulls, because he taught us fundamentals. He taught us about basketball. We had so much class with him and chalk talk and film sessions. He wasn’t a coach who just rolled the ball out to talented, athletic players and said “go play,” and not really teach you basketball X’s and O’s. You got your basketball IQ there.

The triangle system, offensively, was extremely difficult for people to pick up if you didn’t know basketball. If you didn’t know angles and timing and read and react on the defense and stuff like that. And I picked that up relatively quickly. I think it was Jim Cleamons who said I was the fastest study of the triangle offense of the young players that were on the roster.

So that really helped me. They knew that I would not make mistakes. I’m trying to get back into coaching, and one of the coaches I follow on Twitter ... was saying, sometimes basketball comes down to not who makes the best plays but who makes the least amount of errors. And it’s true. Because a critical mistake late in a ballgame can be the difference between winning and losing. I can remember a couple, but generally in those situations, I did not make errors.

JOE KLEINE

In Joe Kleine’s fifth NBA season, Phil Jackson became Bulls head coach. That meant that Kleine spent eight years defending the triangle before joining the Bulls in ‘97-’98.

KLEINE: The offense that the Bulls ran was not typical. The triangle was different in that the centers moved around to the high-post and low-post. It was a very different offense as opposed to all the other offenses. I thought Phil and the Bulls organization always did a really good job of getting people who fit the triangle.

SILVERSTEIN: What was your experience in learning the triangle and playing in the triangle?

KLEINE: I liked it. I thought Phil and Tex and Frank Hamblen and Jimmy Rodgers did a masterful job of how they taught it. They taught it in stages. You kind of had to read and react. Like a lot of things going on back then, and even today, there was so much isolation and standing around and spotting up. Whereas in the triangle, it was rhythmic. Fluid. You ran to spots, you were expected to know all five spots and the reads.

Occasionally if Phil wanted to get Michael in the post or something like that, he would make a signal that would help do that, but it was primarily read and react. I think that was very refreshing. You had to be a part of it. You weren’t standing over in a corner and waiting for someone to do something.

JO JO ENGLISH

For a young player trying to make the Bulls, learning the triangle was perhaps the biggest barrier. In the ‘92-’93 season, undrafted rookie Jo Jo English’s ability to get the offense was the reason the club brought him back for his big contribution in ‘93-’94.

ENGLISH: B.J., Michael, Scottie — they were really hard on guys coming to try out. You had to prove yourself during the one-on-one battles, the defensive battles. The morning practices were more about defense and the afternoon practices were offense. B.J. always helped me. Phil and Tex would say, “reverse action of the blind pig.” Everything was so specific. You had to be a certain distance apart, you had to run down to the Bulls head and pop out.

I had a very good high school coach and a very good AAU coach. So I learned the fundamentals because the first part of our practice was all fundamentals: jump stop, reverse-pivot, how you pass the basketball. When we were in the line, MJ, B.J. and Scottie would always help me. They made it easier for me to pick up on it. And then it became second nature because we repped it all the time.

The challenge I had was that once the season got going, I didn't just have to know the triangle, I had to know what the other team was doing. When we played the Phoenix Suns, I had to be Kevin Johnson. I learned all types of different players and different sets. I grasped the triangle fairly quickly. Now there were certain things that were confusing, because Phil would run stuff like reverse action off the blind pig with the backdoor step, two-pass to the wing. I had to process it.

MATT STEIGENGA

The same year that Jo Jo English was an undrafted rookie, the Bulls had drafted Matt Steigenga with the third-to-last pick. He didn’t make the team then, but came back to Bulls camp for ‘96-’97, running the triangle in summer league with other young Bulls, including recent 1st round picks Dickey Simpkins and Jason Coffey.

STEIGENGA: What really helped me was that I was running the triangle offense. So when I got there in ‘96, it wasn’t like I was just some fresh rookie out of college. I had played in a number of summer leagues. I was very comfortable. I knew the offense at I’d say maybe a 50% level, which was good coming into that situation. There was only a short period of time to make an impression, and I feel like I was able to pick it up a lot faster than anyone else.

The greatest part of being in camp with guys like Michael and Scottie and Toni Kukoc, I kind of quickly realized, Oh, THIS is how the offense is supposed to work. In summer camp, it was a hodge podge. It never ran really well. But guys were trying. So I loved that first day. Wow, this is cool.

SILVERSTEIN: When you were learning the triangle in summer camp, did you work with Tex?

Absolutely. That was really cool. Because he was very hands on. He would ask guys about the dimensions on the court. How far is it from the free throw line to the baseline? And so many guys didn’t know what that was. He would talk about, when the defenders pick the ball up, that becomes the demarcation line. And I knew all of these things. He equated the offense and the defense to battle lines. It was so interesting. And I knew a lot of the answers when he asked questions. It was really cool.

KENDALL GILL

With seven of his first nine NBA seasons on Eastern Conference teams, Kendall Gill saw his share of the triangle. He described just how difficult it was to guard.

GILL: I was more worried about the triangle offense than Michael and Scottie. Okay? Because the triangle offense, when it’s run correctly with players with high basketball IQ, you cannot stop it. It’s like trying to punch Floyd Mayweather. They are trying to find out what you're going to do before they do what they do. They have so many counters.

Jerry Krause did a great job of drafting smart players. A lot of people say, “Well, the triangle offense couldn’t work today.” I say, “Bullshit.” You give me five smart, intelligent players, and I guarantee you I'll win a championship with it.

You look at the Golden State Warriors — Steve Kerr runs some facets of the triangle. And with today's game, the way that they shoot three-pointers all the time, the triangle offense gives you so many open three-point shots.

The people, well, “You got to have Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant.” You need good players in any offense. I don’t want to hear that.

SILVERSTEIN: Forgetting the personnel, how much different is the triangle to defend compared to other offenses?

GILL: Well one, you can’t defend it when it’s run correctly. The only thing you can do is try to push them off the spots, try to make them catch the ball two or three feet away from where they normally catch it. That’s the only way you can defend against or have any type of success against it. Have them catch the ball out of position.

But when you do that, they have counters to that as well. It is very hard. I believe that you can run a triangle and be successful with talented players. You need good players. Can you run it without superstars and be successful? Yes, I believe so, because it’s just that efficient.

It’s based on a premise of giving you all freedom that exists within structure. It gives you a structure but it gives you freedom. It spaces the floor the correct way, so you have opportunities offensively to explore it. A lot of times your defensive players are out of position when the triangle was run correctly. You can take advantage of that. If I was the coach today yet, I would put the triangle in. I’ll make people guard me.

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Best,

Jack

1. I am among the NFL historians who believes Clark Shaughnessy belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I made his case in 2019 at Windy City Gridiron, and again last year at Talk of Fame.

2. Phil Jackson in November 1998, after Holzman’s death, describing his time playing for Red: “We’d come back to the huddle and we’d talk about defense for 30-35 seconds. As it was winding down, (Red would) say, ‘What kind of offense do you want to do?’”