Triangle Offense (Tex Winter)

Family: continuity / read-and-react half-court system organized around a strong-side triangle (corner, wing, post).

Spacing

• Strong-side triangle: corner, wing, post
• Weak-side two-man game: point + weak-side wing in a "two-man game" up top

Core principles

1. Strong-side triangle creates passing angles — every defender has to cover two players.
2. Read the post entry. Most actions trigger off a pass to the strong-side post.
3. No called plays. Players make decisions from a set of options based on defensive positioning.
4. Sideline-triangle vs middle entries — different reads from each.

Signature actions

• Post entry → backdoor cut by the wing if the defender helps
• Post entry → pinch post for the weak-side player
• Two-man game → guard-to-guard pass + back-screen

Counters / answers

• vs Hard double-team in the post: pass back to the wing for a skip to the weak-side
• vs Switching: triangle generates mismatches in the post almost every possession

Scout signals

• Strong-side triangle alignment after entry
• Frequent post touches (high or low)
• Methodical pace
• Heavy reads-based, no obvious play calls

Famous practitioners

• Tex Winter (originator)
• Phil Jackson (Bulls 6 titles, Lakers 5 titles) — Kobe and MJ won everything inside this offense
• Few teams run pure triangle today, but its concepts (post-entry reads, weak-side action) live on

See also

• offense/motion.md, offense/princeton.md
• concepts/cuts.md

Sources & further reading

Verified citations (this file's content can be checked against)

• Wikipedia — Triangle offense — confirms the strong-side triangle structure (corner, wing, post) + weak-side two-man game, the post-entry-driven reads, the "every pass and cut has a purpose" philosophy. Notes the system's basic ideas were originally established by Hall of Fame coach Sam Barry at USC and then developed by Tex Winter, Barry's player.
• Wikipedia — Tex Winter — biographical confirmation: 9× NBA champion as Phil Jackson's assistant (Bulls 1991–93, 1996–98; Lakers 2000–02), Hall of Fame 2011, Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award 2010.
• Tex Winter, The Triple-Post Offense (Prentice-Hall, 1962) — the canonical primary text for triangle principles; long out of print but still the most cited written source for the system.
• BBALLBREAKDOWN — Triangle Offense breakdowns (YouTube) — film walkthroughs of Bulls/Lakers triangle execution.

Recommended further reading for staff

• Phil Jackson & Hugh Delehanty, Sacred Hoops (Hyperion, 1995) and Eleven Rings (Penguin, 2013) — Jackson's accounts of installing the triangle with Jordan/Pippen and later Kobe/Shaq.
• Roland Lazenby, Mindgames: Phil Jackson's Long Strange Journey (Contemporary Books, 2001) — cultural and strategic history of the triangle's championship runs.
• Thinking Basketball / Ben Taylor (YouTube) — modern analytical takes on why pure triangle offense is rare today (poor fit with the 3-point era and ball-handler-driven NBA).

Verification notes (Claude)

• "Tex Winter (originator)" — slightly imprecise. Wikipedia and triangle-offense histories credit Sam Barry (USC) with the foundational concepts; Tex Winter (a Barry player) developed and codified the modern system. Winter is correctly considered the system's foremost teacher and the person who carried it to championship-level success.
• "Bulls 6 titles, Lakers 5 titles" — verified (Phil Jackson's 11 rings: 1991–93, 1996–98 Bulls; 2000–02, 2009–10 Lakers).
• "Kobe and MJ won everything inside this offense" — accurate at a high level; both stars also won outside the triangle in select non-Jackson years (e.g., Kobe was coached without triangle pre-1999 and post-2011), but their championship-era basketball was triangle-based.
• No major suspect claims; the file is conceptually solid. Origin attribution is the only nuance to flag.