Although rumors have surfaced that New York Knicks President Phil Jackson will take over the head coaching duties of the team, Jeff Hornacek said there's no truth to it and even added that the 71-year-old front office executive has been supportive of the tweaks he has made on the triangle offense.
It's also worth noting that he used the term “hands off” when asked if his boss interferes with his coaching.
In a recent interview with Ian Begley of ESPN, the newly-instilled head coach discussed how much leeway he's been given to put his system in place and also mentioned how often he gets in touch with the 11-time champion coach:
“Phil's been great. He's not trying to take over and make us do anything. He's given us the leeway. There are some things that we do that aren't the triangle stuff [such as] our early [offense]. Quite honestly, we thought he would say, ‘Let's not do that.' Or, ‘Let's not do that option.' But he hasn't said that at all.”
“We talk quite a bit, but he's been hands off. He gives some directions here and there. If he sees something or he says, ‘Hey, let's take a look, clean this up, this particular action.' So it's good.
“It's another coach out there — he's run it for years and years, so when he sees something — really, he's not coming in there saying, ‘Hey, change it to this,' or ‘Change it to that.' It's good, additional information.”
The offensive strategy has not been one of the most popular among players the past few years and at times has been criticized for slowing down the pace and preventing them from playing their natural game. Hornacek admits that most of the concern he's faced was about it. He had this to say about the game pace of the triangle offense as well as the importance of scoring early in the shot clock:
“If it slows you down, I think that's where most guys (criticizing the system) are probably coming from. You end up being a slow-down team and never get easy buckets. First of all, guys don't like to run it. Secondly, it makes it very difficult to get easy buckets early in the offense. And I think in today's game, those early buckets are nice to get.”
With a re-tooled roster and high expectations on the Knicks this season, it's definitely interesting to see how much changes Hornacek's style will bring to the triangle offense. If he tweaks it to speed up the game and make it more player-friendly, it can translate to more wins and give their fans something to cheer about after missing out on the playoffs the past three seasons.
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