The Lakers

The principle brilliance of the Triangle Offense lies in the number of potential options it produces for it practitioners. Every momentary stand by the defense triggers several different offensive counters, which is why it’s so difficult to defend. It’s like Whack-a-Mole as basketball. And it’s particularly tough now that the Lakers are fielding a guy at each position who can execute each of those options. Every notable player on the Lakers’ roster can pass the ball, put it on the floor, shoot it from some reasonable distance – Bynum notwithstanding -- and every guy has the wherewithal to know where he’s most useful on the floor at any given moment. Sure, Vladimir Radmanovic has the occasional outage – and his moments are always brilliantly spectacular in their visual absurdity – but he generally understands space. Everyone else is fluent. So how do you beat them? The best option is physical brutality. The Lakers generally app...