Triangle Offense in Basketball: How the Triangle Offense Works

The triangle offense, also known as the triple-post offense, is a basketball offense strategy that places all five players in a complex arrangement design, allowing them an array of scoring opportunities. Three players form the core of the triangle offense by creating the sideline triangle on the strong side of the basketball court, or the side of the floor where the ball is in play. The other two players position themselves on the weak side of the court, where the ball is not in play, to form the two-person game.

The players’ positions on the floor create three triangles which, with proper spacing, allow the offense to move freely across the basketball court and control ball movement while exercising multiple scoring opportunities from every angle.

The triangle offense was the key to Phil Jackson’s winning strategy as head coach of two major National Basketball Association (NBA) teams. Using Jackson’s playbook, the Chicago Bulls won six championships using the triangle offense between 1991 and 1998, while the Los Angeles Lakers won five NBA championships between 2000 and 2010.

The history of the triangle offense begins with basketball coach Tex Winter in the 1940s. Other teams have adopted the system in the years since.

• Origins: Winter learned the fundamentals of the triangle offense while playing under Hall of Fame coach Sam Barry at the University of Southern California. Winter believed strongly in the triangle offense and successfully employed it while coaching basketball at Kansas State University and Marquette University. Winter also wrote a book about the strategy, The Triple-Post Offense, in 1962.
• The Bulls score big with the triangle: After a stint as head coach of the Houston Rockets from 1971–1972, Winter returned to college basketball until 1985 when he joined the Chicago Bulls as an assistant coach. When Phil Jackson signed on as head coach of the Bulls in 1989, he and Winter focused the team’s offensive strategy on the triangle offense. Their sideline triangle featured superstars Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman, who helped turn the Bulls into six-time champions between 1989 and 1998.
• Lakers win multiple championships: Jackson and Winter brought the triangle offense to the Los Angeles Lakers during their tenure with the team from 1999–2004 and 2005–2011. Their sideline triangle initially featured Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, who helped the team win three championships between 2000 and 2004. Jackson briefly left the organization following the team’s loss to the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 Finals. He returned in 2005, replaced O’Neal in the sideline triangle with former Memphis Grizzlies forward Pau Gasol, and won three more NBA finals and two championships.
• Decline: Jackson signed on as president of the Knicks and installed former Laker Derek Fisher as head coach in 2014. Fisher employed the triangle offense with the Knicks, but it failed to work its magic with the new team: They closed their first season under Fisher with a seventeen and sixty-five record, a low for the franchise. Fisher left the team in 2016, and Jackson followed suit in 2017.
• Legacy: While contemporary basketball teams rarely use the triangle offense, championship-winning clubs like the Golden State Warriors have borrowed elements from the strategy. The Warriors sometimes employ a two-person screening strategy called the split cut during a post-up that echoes the two-person game in the triangle offense.

Here’s how to run the triangle offense:

1. 1. Strong side: Three offensive players move into position on the strong side, or the side with the ball handler. Typically, the center moves to the low post near the basket and outside the free-throw line. The forward takes the wing, where the free-throw line extends, and a guard assumes the corner, where the sideline and baseline meet on the court. Spacing between the three points on the sideline triangle must be between fifteen and eighteen feet to allow for interrupted passing.
2. 2. Weak side: The remaining players—the forward and point guard—move to the weak-side corner and opposite wing, where the ball is not in play. There, they form the two-person game, which supports the sideline triangle.
3. 3. Plays: Triangle offense traditionally starts by passing the ball to the low-post player on the strong side. From there, the sideline triangle can set plays: They can move to score, or the post player can pass to one of the sideline triangle players, or perimeter players.
4. 4. Pinch post: If passing to the perimeter players is not possible, they can try the pinch post, in which the weakside guard moves to the strong-side corner while the forward at the strong-side wing screens the corner guard. From there, the triangle offense has many scoring opportunities: a hand-off by the ball handler, a pick and roll by the forward, or a field goal. If none of these options are available, the wing and corner can do a backdoor cut to the basket to open up more shot choices.

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