National Basketball Association

Derrick Rose is struggling to learn Phil Jackson's triangle offense

Published Nov. 15, 2016 3:02 p.m. ET

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Ever since Phil Jackson took over as president of basketball operations for the Knicks, the triangle offense (and Jackson's insistence on using it) has been a constant topic of conversation.

Jackson hired Derek Fisher as head coach because of his ability to run it, and though Fisher is already gone, Kurt Rambis, who coached alongside Jackson for several seasons with the Lakers and was New York's interim coach last year, is expected to be retained as an assistant coach as part of Jeff Hornacek's staff.

The triangle offense (or at least aspects of it) are being taught in the early days of training camp, and it evidently hasn't been going all that well for the team's new point guard, Derrick Rose.

“(Jackson) got mad at us one time because we was running the offense and we didn’t throw the ball into the post,” Rose said after practice Thursday. “He came over, kind of grumpy a little bit. That was my first time ever seeing him like that.”

It's worth noting that literally every team in the league runs actions from the triangle offense; Luke Walton, in fact, was seen putting in some of those sets at Lakers training camp in Santa Barbara earlier this week.

Walton’s with the bigs, Shaw the guards at a drill late in Lakers practice with music blaring in the background: pic.twitter.com/xspuEsqxJz
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) September 28, 2016

Jackson, however, seems intent on running it more than most, and it's clear that Rose, at least early on, is among those struggling to grasp its concepts.