So far, most experts see Phil Jackson’s stubborn devotion to Tex Winter’s increasingly anachronistic Triangle Offense as one of the main culprits behind the Knicks’ stasis. And if Jeff Hornacek was being honest with himself, he’d probably say the same thing. After all, he was the architect of the Suns’ uptempo attack during his abbreviated tenure in Phoenix.
But in the immortal words of Bill Hicks, it looks like old Horny’s turning out to be a company man until the bitter end. Via Ian Begley of ESPN.com:
“There might be players that think [the triangle offense is a deterrent], but there are also probably players out there that say ‘Oh man, I’d like to run something like that,'” Hornacek said Wednesday. “There are guys that may not necessarily like to run around and in [screen] staggers and all that stuff. It’s still an offense where guys, if they’re knowledgeable about the game, should like.”
On the other hand, Hornacek has already acknowledged that the Knicks’ playoff hopes are dim and fading fast, so it probably couldn’t hurt to stick to a strategy that thus far hasn’t produced any measure of success. It also bears mentioning that, in terms of scaring away potential free agents, the Triangle is probably the least of their worries.
The organizational dysfunction runs much deeper than that, from a boorish and mercurial owner who has alienated just about anybody unfortunate enough to fall into his orbit, to a team president whose managerial ineptitude, combined with a bizarre penchant for passive-aggressively antagonizing his franchise star, is threatening to revise the narrative of him as some sort of basketball savant.
What was once a coveted destination for the league’s biggest stars has turned into the NBA’s version of Siberia in recent years, and that likely won’t change any time soon unless the organization begins to drastically alter their philosophy toward, well, just about everything.
