Of course, they had him the previous few seasons, too. And the Lakers don't run it exclusively now. It's certainly true that it takes over a season for it to become second nature, which is why PJ doesn't like rookies and sticks with players like Fisher because they understand it. But if a baby version of the triangle makes the difference between a team that flames out every year in the playoffs to a championship team, sign me up. I see that that DraftExpress thing mentions Craig Hodges. I remember reading an article where he basically badmouths the whole team (says they kiss Kobe's ass) so I'm kind of assuming he's not still employed by the Lakers...
I do think the Lakers run it exclusively these days, and that the Bulls ran it exclusively as well. What makes the Triangle so successful, IMO, is that it's enabled bigger players to be the POINT type guy and leaving the traditional PG spot open for a specialist of some kind. In Hodges' case, he was a 3pt specialist, as was Kerr. In Harper's case, it was elite defense (along with pretty shitty stats all the way around). What's probably most remarkable is how PJax has been able to make the Triangle work against zone defenses.
This question comes up every year. Why don't the Blazers run the triangle? It's a complicated offense. "Every Pass leads to a different play" - I've heard PJ/Lakers say that 100 times. I also remember Kobe saying that there can be 20-25 options/variations that you need to choose from based on reading what the defense is giving you. He also talked about 1 guy can screw up the spacing if he's not on the same page as everybody else, and how it's hard when you bring a new guy in. If it's hard for ONE guy to learn it, imagine the entire team. It could take a full season or two for the players to really understand the nuances of the offense. So is it worth it? It would be a huge undertaking, and no doubt there would be growing pains. I don't know what the answer is.
Jackson's solution when he came to the Lakers was to recruit former players - in his case, Ron Harper - to ease the transition. Are there any palatable former Lakers out there? (Does Ronny Turiaf count?)
That's a pretty good point. The difficulty in learning it means you have to put a huge premium on minimizing team turnover. The Lakers were lucky to never have multiple season-ending injuries to their key players, so they didn't really deal too much with trades like we did where you add a Marcus Camby 3/4 of the way through the season. I don't think we're going to have a lot of turnover going forward on this team, but it's always possible.
Um... Pau Gasol? Which is proof that, if the player is the right KIND of player (smart, multi-talented), they can blend in very quickly.
