NBA G League Select Team head coach Brian Shaw admitted that he has yet to determine the type of offensive system he will implement, since his squad remains incomplete.
So far, only six players have signed up for the professional pathway program — namely Jalen Green, Kai Sotto, Isaiah Todd, Daishen Nix, and recent additions Jonathan Kuminga and Princepal Singh.
“Right now, we only have six players signed to our team. The rest of the team won’t even be put together probably for another couple of months, so I’m still wrestling with what offense I would run once we actually start playing games,” the veteran bench tactician said in the NBA Republika Playoffs online media availability, Thursday.
Still, Shaw already has one system in mind which he plans to install to his team — a system which, according to him, would showcase the talents of the aforementioned elite prospects.
“I played in a lot of different systems, I’ve played for a lot of different teams, and I think that the Triangle Offense is one that could actually help highlight all the players’ skill set,” said Shaw, who played in the NBA from 1988-2003 in a career that saw him play for the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, Golden State Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers, and Portland Trail Blazers.
Shaw himself has vast knowledge of the Triangle Offense. He was part of the Los Angeles Lakers squad that the legendary Phil Jackson steered to three straight NBA championships from 2000-02 using the said system.
Shaw, who started coaching in 2005, said that the game nowadays features lots of pick-and-rolls, and he admitted that he isn’t fond of that since it limits the involvement of all five players on the court.
“You see in the game right now, there’s a lot of pick-and-rolls.
“Well, in the pick-and-roll play, if you only do that, there are only two people that are really involved — the ball handler, and whoever sets the screen. And then you have to wait for one of them to make a play while everybody else is spotted up. And I don’t particularly like to play that way,” he said.
The former Denver Nuggets chief mentor plans to run the tried-and-tested Triangle with his young guns, since he wants to put all of them in a position where they can succeed.
Shaw explained how he would do that to his players, citing Sotto and Green as examples as according to him, the two have the skills that would nicely fit into the vaunted offense and thus help them thrive.
“I wanna put all the players in all the positions to be able to highlight and showcase what they can do,” he said.
“For instance, Kai Sotto — who’s good out on top of the floor, and he can facilitate for his team — I want to put him in those positions so that he could succeed. If Jalen Green has an exceptional ability to post up as a guard, sometimes he’ll be inside posting up.”
Still, it won’t solely be about the Triangle, clarified Shaw. The 54-year-old said that he plans to expose the Select Team to various offensive systems as well as defensive schemes over the course of their stint together.
“I’m gonna expose them over the year to every different type of offensive system. And also make them, you know… Defense is mostly about effort, but we’ll teach them all the different ways to play the pick-and-roll, to front the post inside, or play behind,” said Shaw, who also had coaching stints with the Lakers and the Indiana Pacers.
“We’ll cover all the different ways that you can play both offensively and defensively, with the expectation that just getting repetition and all those things will get them better and all the different areas.”
