My team is pretty young and offensively challenged. I prefer to run the Triangle, though I have no particular reason as to why lol. What skills would be the most important for the Triangle. I assume passing, per and LP. What about Flex and Motion?

Also, any thoughts about improving my squad are welcome. My 3rd season here. 1st recruiting class was decent but I ran out of scouting $$ so signed a couple guys that I should not have. Most recent class was top 50 and #1 in my conference for what its worth. Conference is very weak and I want to dominate it for several years before moving on. I am focusing on better athletes but seem to be lacking in shooting, bh and passing right now.

TBH at D3 LP isn't critical in the triangle but it's helpful.

ATH, PER, BH, and PASS are definitely offensive focal points. Big men who can pass are very helpful too.

the skills that are most important in the triangle are the skills that are most important in flex and motion. there are slight differences between the schemes but they are not nearly enough to swing the core of what makes players and teams good.

my rule of thumb is good players have to have 2 clear strengths between the 3 major abilities (SFs are a bit weird) of scoring, defense, rebounding, or 'guard skills', which is a terrible name i use for the non-scoring component of bh/pass, where reb is only a major ability from the 3-5 and guard skills from the 1-3. 3 clear strength players are obviously great (elite mostly) but are rare, especially outside d1 - a couple of those can make a big difference - but are not required to build high end teams.

for guards the key scoring ratings are usually per, bh, and spd, for per scoring, but you can hit it a different way with ath/spd/lp/per/bh as a 2pt scorer, if you have lower per (1-50 or so) in there mixed with good ath/spd/bh and perhaps lp (better if you can get it) and perhaps ft. high end per scorers are the most efficient in this game so it is important to hit those. for bigs scoring ratings primary are ath/lp, but you have some relevance on per, spd, and ft, especially in high d1. i played in a different time with crappier d2 players but i found ath/lp only types to be fine for high d2 and not d1 (also fine for low d1, that is still true).

for guards defense turns on ath/spd/def (not in that order). for bigs is ath/def/blk, but only blk as a main core in zone and a low end core in m2m. i consider it not a core in press.

reb is purely reb/ath (and as always, iq and stamina, but i figure those are sort of out of scope for this sort of looking at things).

guard skills for guards obviously thats bh/pass, premium at the 1, fairly important to the 3, IMO you can punt at the 4/5. back when i had a triangle/press d2 program that remains one of the top several d2 programs of all time, i neglected bh/pass at the 4-5 completely. and although i no longer value it so low (and the importance of passing in big men was unquestionably increased since then), i still don't think its very important. definitely a nice to have, kind of like guard rebounding, but less important.

depth and stamina are important in a range of schemes, but it varies significantly by circumstances. stamina is a top line core for every player in a fb/fcp scheme, and is a full core for every player on any press team. but its perhaps only a full core in m2m and zone for the better players. the reality is, stamina is the absolute most important marginal rating for most of the elite players in this game, across all divisions, play styles and off/def schemes. but for mediocre players, its a major step down in importance from key stuff like reb in bigs or per in guards.

anyway, once you get a team full of guys with 2 clear ability strengths (a scoring, defensive type sg, for example, or a scoring reb type big), its pretty important to arrange those sensibly... you want a couple per scoring strengths on the team along with a couple other quality scorers, a couple reb strengths on both lineups, a couple guard skills strengths on both lineups, and as much defense as you can get while getting all that other stuff. if you have too much of this and too little of that, it will really bite you. the trick is, slanted players, balanced teams. well rounded players suck; lopsided teams suck. all of that stuff swamps the triangle vs motion etc difference, those differences basically are details.

to your question - i value bh more in motion, and i value 2pt/fta based scoring in guards more in motion (and slightly more still in fb). i value lp/per slightly more in triangle when it comes to scoring, and i never really got a great feel for flex. i won a couple with it but its just not my jam, i never played it during the couple years i was really trying to figure stuff out, so i am not super up on it. it does seem spd in per scoring is more emphasized, and probably passing in general somehow. but really outside fb, they are pretty similar. a fantastic motion team is necessarily a fantastic triangle team or vice versa; its really defenses where you see substantial differences. so all the stuff outside this paragraph generally vastly outweighs anything in this paragraph.

I've been told that triangle gives a boost to players with high distro.

With that in mind I'd say try and have 3-5 "go-to" scorers on your roster and give them 90% of your scoring distro. Then you can surround them with role players with great pass, def, reb, etc. who don't really need to have scoring attributes. Biggest disadvantage is that your opponent will probably double team your scorers.

If you don't like the idea of building a team like this and want a more balanced approach on offense I would highly recommend using motion or flex instead.

I'm going to essentially write the same thing as Billy in fewer words and with less information.

Don't worry about the difference between offenses unless you are playing fastbreak. Instead focus on ATH and DEF for the all of your players and try to have a roster with the below archetypes:

2 point guards. cores: Pass, BH, Speed, Def, Ath (FT also nice)
2 3-point shooters. cores: Per, BH, speed, Def, Ath (PER being by far the most important)
3 rebounders. cores: Ath, Reb, Def (LP also nice but not required)

The rest of the team should be made up of people that may grow into one of the archetypes or at least can play defense. I don't spend that much time chasing attributes outside of those listed above for a non-FB/FCP team. If they have another attribute (like LP for a point guard or REB for a 3 point shooter) great! but I dont spend that much time recruiting other skills unless they fall in my lap especially in D3. That is a better guideline than rule (ie there are worthwhile exceptions) but I think its a good guiding principle.

With only anecdotal evidence, my take on the offenses

1) Triangle - excellent for high distro of 2 or 3 scorers
2) Motion - distros more even, may be impediment for single high scorer
3) Flex- any distro you want, may be best for a single high scorer
4) Fastbreak- never figured out anything except I don't like it

FWIW offensive scheme doesn't seem to have any where near as much effect as defenses.

Your best offensive scheme is ALWAYS the one you have best IQ's for !!! : )

As far as I understand triangle, everything you need to know about the offense is in the name.

3 of your players on the floor will be setup to dominate scoring in a triangle. So with distribution and recruiting, keep that in mind also with your bench players... the way your scorers rotate in and out of the triangle.

Posted by craigaltonw on 3/13/2021 9:01:00 PM (view original):
As far as I understand triangle, everything you need to know about the offense is in the name.

3 of your players on the floor will be setup to dominate scoring in a triangle. So with distribution and recruiting, keep that in mind also with your bench players... the way your scorers rotate in and out of the triangle.

IMO this is a long-standing forum myth. i never saw anything special about triangle and having 3 high distro players. however, in any scheme, you generally are looking for 3 main scorers on your starting line to carry the bulk of the load. so its not a bad idea to try to have 3 main scorers on the floor in triangle... its quite a good one. however that has absolutely nothing to do with triangle itself, in my experience.

although i do tend to favor a tad bit flatter distro in motion, im not sure if that is just the way it works out or if there is a real reason behind it... but not by a ton, a point or two less here and there for higher scorers perhaps. i have had flat teams in triangle that were amazing, and havent had more or less luck with 2 or 4 than 3 good scorers. its really just the specific triangle / 3 scorer association that i am objecting to. putting about 30% of the scoring load on the starting line in each of 3 players is a great strategy in any scheme nonetheless.

The way it’s been explained to me... you want 5-6 main scorers, not 3. That’s what I meant about the rotation in the triangle.

And to be honest, when I build a team, that makes no difference to me. I don’t focus on the effect of distribution on my offensive set nearly as much as I focus on team defense, rebounds, and assists.

I don’t really understand coaches who “build offenses specifically for (blank) offense.” I mean, I understand FB: superior ath/spd... add elite defense and FCP... yawn!