So with the season starting tomorrow night, I just thought I would let you guys what to expect from NBA Playbook.  In addition to all the breakdowns (possession/game/performance), looking at offensive and defensive strategies, and just examining the NBA as a whole, I am very excited to announce a new daily feature.

A video breakdown of every game played the night before, starting Wednesday.  This unnamed (I got two days to figure out a name – e-mail or tweet me if you got an idea for it)  daily video will be anywhere from 5-15 minutes and breakdown a certain aspect of every game in the NBA (the goal is to get this up by 9 or 10 AM every morning.  Will probably have trouble doing that for the first week or so as I get the routine down).  I personally like to think of it as a video, more Xs and Os oriented version of Kelly Dwyer’s fantastic Behind The Boxscore (though I am not sure it will ever be that good).

So what does that mean for the other posts?  Nothing really as I don’t expect anything else is going to change.  The posts are still going to be there, and in fact, I am hoping to get more up on a daily basis.  This daily video will be something that is posted in addition.

The Los Angeles Lakers seem to be one of the only teams that can run the triangle offense successfully.  The triangle is an interesting set because there seems to be two basic motions, and then that’s it.  There is a lot of freelancing off of these two motions, as players are simply asked to maintain the principles of the triangle.  A system like this really relies on the players being able to play every spot on the court, understanding spacing principles, and most importantly, being able to read defenses.

Before we look at some of the freelance stuff in the triangle, let’s look at the two basic options:

The basic set up for a triangle is your standard two guard offensive front except that the 4-man (usually Lamar Odom) is in the backcourt with the point guard.  The point guard gets it to the 2-man (usually Kobe Bryant), and then dives to the corner.

Now this dive after the ball entry is probably the one constant in the triangle.  Whenever the ball gets entered the point guard always dives either to the ballside corner or the weakside corner.  In fact, the Lakers do some interesting things off of this dive (more on that later).

Back to the option.  Now that the 2 has the basketball, the 5 comes to the high post to create the triangle.  You can do a lot of things off of this.  Pass to the corner and cut through, PNR with the high post, anything.  Here is what it looks like live:

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