The Darko Dimension

We all got Darko wrong. Myself included. He's a #2 overall pick. He's a bust. He's only 25 years old. He's proven nothing. He's 7' tall with a 7'5" wingspan. He's soft and easily intimidated. There's been so much said about the man that it's hard to say anyone really even knows what he is. To some, he's the punchline for jokes so popular they don't even need to be listed. To others, he's a player with a world of potential still to be tapped who's NBA history to date can be described most accurately as a string of very unfortunate situations.

From New York to Minnesota isn't going to strike any but the most critical as forward career momentum, yet 9 months and $20 million later, here we are. With a young man on the roster who has found new life, on a team looking for new life itself.

When Darko first arrived in Minnesota back in February, we all asked the obvious question: why? And we came up with quite a lengthy list....everything from it being a no risk situation to it being absolutely critical that we get a real center. A list that was reinforced by Darko's rather encouraging Wolves debut against the Thunder. And yet, while that list is valid and true, it turns out we answered the question wrong.

Darko's importance to this team is magnitudes beyond what any of us first realized. He is the key to the Timberwolves this season. And you're about to find out why.

Let's talk triangles. Or should I say, Triangles. A painfully uncomplicated geometric shape, but a bafflingly ambiguous basketball system.

For being the most famous offensive scheme in basketball....and arguably, in sports as a whole even....few fans, even hardcore ones, know what the Triangle actually is. The general depth of knowledge on the subject reminds me of an old commercial where Tex Winter walks into a college gym, draws a triangle on the whiteboard, and turns to the team.

"What is this?"

"A triangle."

And then he walks out.

So...a brief overview for you.

Contrary to popular belief, the Triangle was not invented by legendary coach and strategist, Tex Winter. He brought it to the NBA, but the inception for the scheme actually came from the college ranks: USC's then-head coach Sam Barry. The Triangle goes back so far it very nearly pre-dates Winter.....Tex (who's 88 years old, for reference) learned of the system because he first played in it under Barry.

The reason Winter brought the system to the NBA, in 1989 as an assistant to the Bulls' new head coach Phil Jackson, was actually more an act of desperation than genius. The NBA was a much more physical game in that era, and Michael Jordan had just suffered through the worst of it. A brutal 6 game playoff series against the Detroit Pistons, who used a defensive strategy that famously became known as "The Jordan Rules"....a strategy that left Jordan literally in tears by the end of game 6.

In order to take defensive pressure off of Jordan, and to facilitate more involved play from the rest of the team, Jackson and Winter installed the Triangle in the 89-90 season. It would space the floor better, and force Jordan to move the ball more....something he was infamously reluctant to do at that point in his career. That season, the Bulls pushed the Pistons to a more evenly-fought 7 games. The season after, they swept Detroit and won the championship....the first of 6 Jordan would ultimately win.

The Triangle, at its core, is actually very simple: it's just a different way to space the floor. Instead of a traditional 1-2-2 or 3-2 set.....where the point guard is at the top of the arc, the wings to his right and left, and the big men towards the baseline from them....the Triangle sets up the point guard in one of the corners, with a wing player to his left or right along the arc, and the center in the post. Those three literally form the shape of a triangle on the court....thus where the system gets its name from.

A couple of examples of this are as follows:

If you pause the video at 0:06, you can see the Bulls are in the exact spacing on the floor as shown in the diagram above. Scottie Pippen in the corner, with Jordan to his left along the arc, and Longley in the mid-post about halfway between the free throw line and the baseline.

Likewise....

Again, if you pause it at 0:06, you can see the proper spacing. Kobe in the corner, with Odom to his right, and Gasol in the mid-post.

This is the foundation of the Triangle. There's a million-and-two plays that can be run from it, but it always starts with this configuration.

Now one thing you probably noticed is that the corner man is not always the point guard. In fact, in neither case is that true. In one instance, the corner man is Scottie Pippen, who was the Bulls' point guard in practice, but their small forward in name; in the other, it's Kobe. The truth is, it doesn't particularly matter which perimeter player is standing in which spot. In watching the Lakers play, it seems to be whoever is closest.

But there's also one constant: in the default setup, the center is always.....always.....the player that starts in the mid-post.

And that's why we have Darko.

I unfortunately can't embed this into the article, but to understand why things are the way things are, you're going to need to play this through:

http://www.coachawinningteam.com/basketball_play_triangle/

If you press "play" and go through the whole thing, you're bound to notice one overriding fact: the center touches the ball on every single play. That's the way the Triangle operates...it spaces the floor a specific way to create specific passing lanes. And the best of those passing lanes start from the center position. Back out to the wings, left or right to slashers, or over the shoulder to a backdoor cutter. Shaq used to make a killing with that over the shoulder pass.

As many of you have probably heard it referred to, the Triangle is an "inverted offense". It doesn't start with the point guard and plays in. It starts with the center and plays out. The center is the one who gets the ball and decides where it will go, and that decision ultimately dictates what play is run and what the entire team does that possession.

Now this isn't new to me. I've known the basic fundamentals of the Triangle offense for a long time, and I've known that....despite what percentage Kurt Rambis likes to put on it....the Wolves run the Triangle on an overwhelming number of their possessions. Its obvious just by watching the floor spacing. If you know what the Triangle looks like, it's easy to spot.

But it wasn't until this week that this all fell into place.

I was at the October 19th preseason game against the Pacers, and as the second quarter came to a close and the third quarter wore on, it became obvious that something was very wrong with the offense. There was no movement, no fluidity, no coordination. Telfair took the ball and dribbled in circles for 20 seconds while four other Timberwolves stood around and watched him. It was like 2009 all over again.

Then it hit me.

Darko wasn't playing.

The team spent all of training camp learning the Triangle offense, but they couldn't use it because Darko wasn't playing. The spacing was right, but once the ball reached the post...? Koufos is no Vlade Divac, and Pekovic....bless his heart....only has court vision in one direction: whatever direction the hoop is in. And then I thought about Al Jefferson's distributing abilities....

And suddenly, everything made sense.

This is why we have Darko.

This is why we traded for him. This is why we started him, even though he was out of shape and didn't produce nearly as much as Love. This is why we replaced Al Jefferson with him, why we didn't draft DeMarcus Cousins at his position, and why we guaranteed him a starting spot. Why he will always start, even when Pekovic's box scores look superior. This is why we paid him $20 million over 4 years...and why it specifically had to be him, not just as 7 foot center who could rebound and defend.

Because it wasn't about rebounding and defending.

We were wrong. We got it wrong. The team wasn't looking for a no-risk experiment. It wasn't looking for a defender. When Kahn called Darko "Mana from Heaven", he didn't mean Darko was taller than Jefferson, or faster than Jefferson, or a more natural center than Jefferson. Our list of "why" reasons went in the wrong direction: we were thinking of size, not skill. Of defense, not offense. Of roster, not system.

The Wolves weren't looking for a center who could traditionally rebound, block shots, and defend the paint. They were looking for a center who could facilitate. Because that's what a center needs to do in the Triangle. Not a Dwight Howard or Amare Stoudemire, but a Luc Longley.

That's why the team targeted Darko for trade. Why Kurt Rambis spent the last two months of the season killing himself....and his team's record....to convince Darko he had a place here. And why the team bid so high on a guy who started off determined to leave the NBA, and ended up with only one real suitor: the Wolves.

The number of 7 footers who can rebound and block shots? Endless. The number of 7 footers who can make a picture perfect behind-the-back bounce pass from the free throw line to a baseline cutter? You can practically count them on one hand. Darko has a very rare talent combination for a center: court vision, passing ability, and the basketball IQ to utilize it without micromanagement. That he can rebound, block shots, jam up a pick-and-roll, and has a sweet little hook shot is just bonus material.

I'm not going to play stupid pretend any of this changes anyone's mind. Some of you are going to be very upset that the Wolves traded Al Jefferson and passed on DeMarcus Cousins because of this. That we chose against the "next Hakeem" because of our system. I get that, I understand that. But it's over and done with. There are plenty of other articles for you all to complain about that in. Darko is our man, for better or worse. Fortunately this preseason, we're seeing a lot of the "better" aspect.

Darko's put up modest averages of 6.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 2.4 assists, playing just 20 minutes a game (and, of course, missing the second Indiana contest entirely). Yet he is a net +36 overall, and he is third among centers in assists per game (second in assists/48, behind only Joakim Noah. His total EFF is a +11.29

His presence was especially felt tonight against the Bucks....when Darko entered the game at the start of the fourth quarter, we were trailing 80-88. He proceeded to pile up 2 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists over the next 12 minutes as a pivitol reason the game went to overtime, then grabbed the final offensive board in OT to give Ridnour one last shot at a game winner.

His final line of 12 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks, and just a single turnover in 30 minutes is exactly the kind of play the Wolves knew Darko was capable of. But more importantly, it displays the breadth of Darko's impact on our team. He has a significant hand in every aspect of what we do....scoring, rebounding, defending, and....especially important....facilitating.

That's what I mean by the "Darko Dimension". Not some freakish Twilight Zone of Milicics, but rather that do-it-all presence that makes everything else work. I was wrong too....Luke Ridnour is not initiating our offense. Michael Beasley is not the most important Timberwolf this season. We'll flourish with him, but can do without him; we can't do without Darko. He's the one who gets the ball and decides where it will go. That's his job in the Triangle offense. It all starts with him. When Darko plays well, we can run perhaps the most famous and successful system professional sports has seen. When he plays poorly, or not at all, everything falls apart. 

That is why Darko, more than any other player this year, holds the success of our team in his hands.

Also, for those of you with an extra half hour on your hands, I highly HIGHLY recommend watching this video:

In His Own Words: Phil Jackson Teaches the Triangle Offense