Much has been made of the triple-post offense — more popularly known as the Triangle — the Knicks are running this year. Most gripe it doesn’t work in the contemporary game, and J.R. Smith certainly struggled with it earlier this year. But Swish got dealt to Cleveland, and he told the New York Post before his first game in a Cavs uniform on Wed. the Triangle required “almost too much thinking.” Here we go.
Smith admitted in training camp the triangle would “take a few months” to learn, but it sounds like President of basketball operations Phil Jackson didn’t want to wait around and see if that extending learning curve would pan out for J.R. Swish.
Later that same month J.R. admitted he’d put himself ahead of the team in the past and said the Triangle was a struggle.
Earlier this week he told the New York Post‘s Kevin Kernan the offense necessitates “almost too much thinking.”
“Everybody in the building was pretty much walking on eggshells so it was kind of hard to prosper in that way, especially when you are not accustomed to it,” Smith continued. “But eventually I’m sure they’ll get it right.”
Knicks coach Derek Fisher cautioned that the reaction to the offense depends on which player you’re talking to, which implicitly means some of caught on faster than others. Some probably don’t view the Triangle as over-extending their cerebellum, though.
“We’ve been very frank how we’re learning together — whether that’s eggshells or whether that’s trying to learn how to win, it depends on the person you’re talking to,” Fisher said.
“Everybody has their own opinion,” Tim Hardaway, Jr. believes. “We’ll continue to use the system and make it work.”
For Smith, who had an inauspicious 0-for-5 shooting night in his first game with the Cavs, his recent struggles in a different uniform can also be attributed to the triangle:
“I just got to get back to getting into my package, playing in a different offense for 37 games, I really wasn’t allowed to do what I normally did and I’m trying to get back to that,” Smith said of the night he was as cold as the 12-degree temperature outside. “It’s going to be a little different.”
So J.R. couldn’t thrive within the parameters of the Triangle in New York, and he’s started off poorly in Cleveland because of the Triangle. Plus, the Triangle requires “almost too much thinking.”
Trying to find a way to sum up some of the things J.R. Smith says to the media also requires a lot of thinking, but not too much.
What else does J.R. Smith believe requires “almost too much thinking”
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