LAST Saturday evening, I was one of the moderators of the Hoop Coaches International webinar that featured women’s coach Patrick Aquino and multi-titled Philippine Basketball Association tactician, Tim Cone.
The webinar is the brainchild of Coach Ariel Vanguardia who I became friends with while he was calling the shots for the Jose Rizal University Heavy Bombers in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (PBA). Later still, when he joined the Westsports Malaysia Dragons in the Asean Basketball League among others, I covered him and even stayed at the players’ dorm in Kuala Lumpur for about a week.
After coaching the Phoenix Fuel Masters in the PBA, Coach Ariel has really dedicated himself to promoting coaching. He was able to bring in Vance Walberg who developed the world famous dribble drive offense that is in vogue today.
However, with The Last Dance documentary, one of the world’s hottest topics today (with the world in global lockdown), as it has aired four episodes on Netflix, last Saturday evening’s webinar with Cone took special meaning.
Cone still runs the fabled offense made famous by the Chicago Bulls. Maybe not as much as he had adapted the system to include elements of the dribble drive offense and what Steve Kerr runs with the Golden State Warriors, but it is still there.
The offense seems to have taken a beating especially when the New York Knicks did such a poor job running it. All of Phil Jackson’s disciples who ran it—Jim Cleamons in Dallas, Kurt Rambis in Minnesota and Derek Fisher in New York have failed. Miserably.
So seeing Cone’s success in the PBA is a treat for those who fell in love with the system.
While it is opined that Cleamons, Rambis and Fisher did not have system designer Tex Winter with their teams, I can also say that Jackson wasn’t a part although in New York, he was team president.
I am going to lift something for Cone mentioned when asked what characteristics a coach must possess, and among his answers was patience, being process-oriented and an ability to learn. Sadly, I don’t think that was present with Cleamons’s, Rambis’s and Fisher’s teams.
When Cleamons was in Dallas, that was the year when teammates Jim Jackson and Jason Kidd were feuding. And the triangle calls for the ball being taken out of the hands of one player for a spell. Can you imagine Kidd without the ball?
And they had Sam Cassell, too. The closest thing they had to Michael Jordan was Finley. So as Cleamons joined the Mavericks, I wondered who’d go to the wall for him. After a 24-58 season, it was over for him.
It was the same for Rambis in Minnesota. This wasn’t a very good team with only Kevin Love and Al Jefferson as the name players.
One of the interesting questions posed to Cone last night was which among his three teams—Alaska, B-Meg or Barangay Ginebra run the offense best and who among his imports—Sean Chambers for the Milkmen, Marqus Blakely for B-Meg and Justin Brownlee for the latter fit the offense best?
I could be wrong but I was under the impression that while Alaska ran it for a longer period of time, B-Meg executed it better. Chambers though was best import to play through it.
The cool thing about the triangle was that there were no set plays as it was a read and react type of offense. Hearing Phil Jackson talk about it where in anyone set, there are at least 33 ways to score is incredible.
When Cone showed his teams running the system, it was great to see them make the proper reads and try to score. Even watching the clips where they miss in spite of a spot-on execution was a thrill.
It may be 22 years since The Last Dance and nine years since it was run with aplomb in Los Angeles with the Lakers, but it was sure nice getting a refresher course from Tim Cone in a most excellent webinar organized by Coach Ariel.
Am looking forward to next.