Jeff Hornacek will incorporate triangle offense with Knicks

The triangle offense won’t be leaving New York after all.

Jeff Hornacek said in his introductory press conference on Friday that he plans to incorporate elements of Phil Jackson’s preferred offense into what the Knicks do.

“There must be something about the word triangle,” Hornacek told the media, via CBS Sports’s James Herbert. “Maybe we’ll call it the circle offense. To me, it’s just a way to space the floor. When I was talking with Coach in L.A. and started looking at things that I would like to do out of the triangle offense, he goes, ‘Yeah, you can run whatever play you want out of the triangle offense.’

“In Utah when I played, we had the 1-4 set. It was just a way to space the floor. It’s the same reads, a lot of the same reads that we did then. In today’s game, with a lot of the pick-and-rolls, it’s just reading basketball. And so again, when I look at it, if you take the normal set-up of the team, most of the teams, you can watch Golden State, almost any team that runs pick-and-rolls, the spacing — if you just put, move one guy six feet to the side and one guy six feet down, you’re in the same exact alignment. It’s something that we can run a lot of plays out of. It’ll be a part of our offense. It’s something that has worked, it’s won championships.”

While it sounds like Hornacek will have a bit more freedom to do as he likes, as was previously reported, he’ll also be adhering to the principles of the triangle. It was hard to believe Jackson would back down that readily. Perhaps a faster, pacier version of the offense is in the Knicks’ future.