Carmelo Anthony was the latest guest on New Orleans Pelicans shooting guard J.J. Redick's podcast called “The Old Man & the Three,” and the future Hall of Famer talked about why the triangle offense didn't work with the New York Knicks after Phil Jackson was hired as president.
Anthony says he was open to running the triangle offense and studied the heck out of it. The former Knicks star used to talk to Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant about it and even had one-on-one sessions with Jackson.
However, according to Anthony, the Knicks didn't have the right personnel to run the triangle and that's why players on the team didn't want to run it, especially during the 2016-17 season, which was Melo's last year in The Big Apple (via Randy Cruz).
Melo talking about the triangle offense in NY pic.twitter.com/OcQWP6TdK3
— Randy Cruz (@randyjcruz) October 1, 2020
The Knicks were supposed to contend for a playoff spot in 2016-17 after Phil Jackson acquired former MVP Derrick Rose from the Chicago Bulls and signed Joakim Noah in free agency. New York had a Big Three of Rose, Kristaps Porzingis and Carmelo Anthony, three guys who can score 20 points in their sleep.
However, the Knicks were a walking disaster during the 2016-17 season. They won only 31 games and Jackson was seemingly throwing shade towards Anthony via the media the entire season.
Anthony, who is rumored to be interested in a potential reunion with the Knicks this offseason, wound up averaging 22.4 points per game in 2016-17 on 43.3 percent shooting from the field, while Porzingis put up 18.1 points and Rose produced 18.0.
While those are good numbers from the trio, the Knicks were playing too slow because of the triangle offense and Anthony and Rose didn't understand it, especially since the latter is one of the most explosive and fastest guards in the NBA.
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