The triangle offense is alive and well in Los Angeles.
Not with the Lakers (although, like most teams, Luke Walton runs a couple of triangle-style sets). No, with Kobe Bryant’s daughters’ basketball team.
In retirement, Kobe is coaching his middle daughter’s team and he has them running the triangle, he said on The Late Late Show with James Corden recently.
“I sit there with my kids, the girls will go out, and I’ll say, ‘You’re going against a zone, so I need you to cross green, wing entry, hit the two pass to the post, bypass first cutter, second cutter hit the third cutter.’ And they’ll go, ‘Okay.’”
First, you can be sure Kristaps Porzingis is never coaching his kids’ teams to run the triangle someday.
Second, as a dad with active daughters around Kobe’s children’s ages, I use that “Uber for kids” line all the time (before I heard it from him). As modern dads it’s what we do.
Finally, the triangle’s time may have passed in the NBA (we can debate the issue, but the NBA game has evolved for reasons). However, it is an excellent offense for youth teams and smart teams on lower levels. There are a number of women’s college teams that run it, or parts of it, to get them clean looks. The offense still works in many settings. I love that Kobe has them running it.
