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Kobe Bryant goes back to school: Lakers switching to Princeton offense

LONDON – Kobe Bryant has been searching for spacing and freedom and flow on offense, for a way to counter defenses bent on sagging and suffocating him on the floor. Even before the Los Angeles Lakers delivered him point guard Steve Nash, Bryant had raised an idea with coach Mike Brown about the possibility of employing a distant cousin to the triangle – the Princeton offense. ...

"It's a great offense," Bryant told Yahoo! Sports. "It's exactly what we need. It takes us back to being able to play by making reads and reacting to defenses. It takes a great deal of communication, but that's where we're at our best: Reading and reacting as opposed to just coming down and calling sets. Calling sets make you vulnerable.

"There's so many threats, so many options, it's very tough to defend. Against the type of defenses that teams play nowadays, they load up on one side and are constantly coming with help from the weak side. The Princeton offense makes it very, very tough to lock in on one particular player.

"From my experience, those types of principles – ball movement, changing sides on the floor, everybody being involved – those are championship principles. That's championship DNA."

"Steve is going to make it easier for Pau, because he's an incredible distributor, but the system is perfect for [Gasol]," Bryant said. "His ability to pass the ball, to make plays from the high post – to shoot – is the perfect system for him.

"I'm excited for Pau because this is right in his wheelhouse."

SlavaMedvedenko wrote:Isn't Sloan famous for the princeton offense?

Anyways this is a really smart decision, the players we have now in Kobe, Pau, Nash and Drew are too smart to be depending on offensive sets and this could actually relieve some pressure off Brown so he could be what he is best at, which is a defensive coordinator.

So there was Brown and Bryant in a side room in a Las Vegas gymnasium during Team USA's training camp in early July, listening to Eddie Jordan detail the offense's intricacies, laying out how Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum would benefit with and without the basketball. Here was an old-school Ivy League blueprint daring to be a solution for the Showtime Lakers' issues.

Jordan happens to be the foremost Princeton authority in the NBA, the heir to architect Pete Carril, and that's an immense part of why the Lakers are moving toward an agreement to hire Jordan as an assistant coach. Jordan sold his vision of the offense to a most willing subject, and ultimately Bryant departed for these Olympics convinced that the Lakers have a sound plan of action for the 2012-13 season.

dockingsched wrote:

SlavaMedvedenko wrote:Isn't Sloan famous for the princeton offense?

Anyways this is a really smart decision, the players we have now in Kobe, Pau, Nash and Drew are too smart to be depending on offensive sets and this could actually relieve some pressure off Brown so he could be what he is best at, which is a defensive coordinator.

they did talk about eddie jordan and his princeton offense prowess:

So there was Brown and Bryant in a side room in a Las Vegas gymnasium during Team USA's training camp in early July, listening to Eddie Jordan detail the offense's intricacies, laying out how Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum would benefit with and without the basketball. Here was an old-school Ivy League blueprint daring to be a solution for the Showtime Lakers' issues.

Jordan happens to be the foremost Princeton authority in the NBA, the heir to architect Pete Carril, and that's an immense part of why the Lakers are moving toward an agreement to hire Jordan as an assistant coach. Jordan sold his vision of the offense to a most willing subject, and ultimately Bryant departed for these Olympics convinced that the Lakers have a sound plan of action for the 2012-13 season.

TyCobb wrote:They can run whatever offense they want as long as Steve Nash is their PG.

dockingsched wrote:

SlavaMedvedenko wrote:Isn't Sloan famous for the princeton offense?

Anyways this is a really smart decision, the players we have now in Kobe, Pau, Nash and Drew are too smart to be depending on offensive sets and this could actually relieve some pressure off Brown so he could be what he is best at, which is a defensive coordinator.

they did talk about eddie jordan and his princeton offense prowess:

So there was Brown and Bryant in a side room in a Las Vegas gymnasium during Team USA's training camp in early July, listening to Eddie Jordan detail the offense's intricacies, laying out how Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum would benefit with and without the basketball. Here was an old-school Ivy League blueprint daring to be a solution for the Showtime Lakers' issues.

Jordan happens to be the foremost Princeton authority in the NBA, the heir to architect Pete Carril, and that's an immense part of why the Lakers are moving toward an agreement to hire Jordan as an assistant coach. Jordan sold his vision of the offense to a most willing subject, and ultimately Bryant departed for these Olympics convinced that the Lakers have a sound plan of action for the 2012-13 season.

madtrap347 wrote:so this new offense is a done deal? from what i read, i didn't see brown's approval. hopefully i am wrong...