Basketball is a battle of plays. Successful teams have specialized strategies on both ends of the court – defense and offense. The most popular offensive play and perhaps one of the most effective is the Triangle Offense, coach Phil Jackson’s preferred strategy for his Los Angeles Lakers and who will ever forget, the Chicago Bulls, which made a championship run from ‘91 to ‘94 and ‘96 to ‘98 using the Triangle Motion Offense.

The architect of the offensive strategy is Tex Winter, Phil’s assistant coach during his reign in the Windy City but the credit goes to Winter’s college coach Sam Barry of Southern Cal for planting ideas of the motion offense on his players.

The Triangle basically is made-up of a three-man triangle on one side and a “two man game” on the other side of the court. What differentiates the strategy from set plays is the freedom of movement in the offense and it offers a wide variety of cuts which primarily depends on the how the defense plays and unlike freelance motion offense strategies, players must know each position and are required to provide court spacing and cutting.

Featured are examples of some basic movements of the Triangle Motion Offense.

Legend:

1 Point Guard

2 Shooting Guard

3 Small Forward

4 Power Forward

5 Center

O Ball Handler

- - Pass

— Move to Position

X Opponent

W Dribble

T Set Screen

Setting Up the Triangle

Running the Triangle Offense

The Post Split

The Screen Away

Back Door Lob

The Screen and Roll

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