"We're not running the triangle here, but we use the same idea" - How Tex Winter helped build the Golden State Warriors dynasty
In 2015, the Golden State Warriors finally took off and devised an offensive approach that no team could figure out. The Dubs then went on and won four NBA titles in eight years by relying on the same simple yet highly efficient strategy derived from the late Tex Winter's famous triangle offense.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was deeply impacted by Winter's triangle offense, having played it firsthand during their time with the Chicago Bulls. As soon as he arrived in Golden State, Kerr, with the help of his then-assistant Luke Walton, went to the drawing board and began injecting it into the team's playbooks.
"Well, anytime I can channel Tex Winter, I'm going to do that," Kerr told Vice in 2015. "I learned so much basketball from him, and those were great years in Chicago. We don't run the triangle, but we do have some concepts of the triangle within what we do."
"We definitely try to get Tex's philosophy of the game into our guys' minds as much as possible," Walton shared. "We're not running the triangle here, but we use the same idea."
Consolidating the applicable ideas from Tex's triangle playbook
Kerr and Walton were well aware that Michael Jordan was different from Steph Curry, but he also knew they both attracted added pressure from the defensive end. This made Winter's triangle offense even more applicable to the Warriors.
By the time Kerr and Walton were deployed, Curry was already shooting 44% from the three-point line. They knew the double team and help defense would come for Curry and they figured that's when they would run the "back door step" of the triangle offense.
Walton was also thrilled by the idea that even if the defense shut their shooters down from deep, some guys would be open if they ran it properly. But first, they needed to study Winter's films closely.
"We'll watch film," Walton said, "And we'll see that what they call the back door step will be wide open. That's not part of the basics of what we try to do. But we'll tell our guys to do a backcut every time they're overplayed. 'Just use the pressure against them.'"
"What was great about Tex with the triangle offense was, if the defense would work hard to take something away from you, then something else has to be open," he added. "We work from the same idea. If you want to take away our three-point shooters, we have other people on other areas of the court who will be open."
Sticking with the basics like Tex
The fundamentals were part of Winter's overall philosophy. Kerr and Walton also wanted to impart that to the Warriors, but it was easier said than done as it was no longer the 90s. Undeniably, Curry made a name for himself by beating his opponents with his handles and firing 30-footers. Given it was already the 2010s, Walton said they didn't need to overhaul the Warriors' brand. They just needed to balance it.
"Tex, he was huge on the fundamentals of the game, the basic plays, things that are very important to our team's success," Walton explained. "Obviously, we play a flashy brand of basketball, but we work on Tex's basic drills. Steve and I get these guys to do them every single day in practice."
"We definitely try our best to get these guys to use Tex's two handed chest pass, even though our guys prefer the behind the back," Walton said with a smile.
How did the Dubs react to it
One of the challenges Kerr and Walton faced was converting the nuggets of Winter's triangle offense to layman's terms during practice. As expected, some of the Warriors players couldn't understand what Kerr and his coaching staff were trying to do until it all made sense.
"When Steve Kerr took over the job, I remember the first training camp, he's like, ball movement, cut, stop standing and waiting for the ball," Warriors All-Star forward Draymond Green once recalled. "We all thought he was out of his mind!"
"And then as we started to do it, then you figure it out, and you like, 'Yo, this is actually pretty incredible.' Like, it's a ball moving. There goes the mismatch, but nobody's really standing. And that's kind of where all this flow offense and all this stuff came," he added.
It didn't take long before Kerr and Walton's patience paid off. Before they knew it, the Warriors were simultaneously running and gunning while displaying glimpses of Winter's triangle offense.
Over time, Kerr and his coaching staff have added a few tweaks to their playbooks. However, it's easy to see that Tex Winter's triangle and fundamentals are still the core of Golden State's offense.
