Phil Jackson is the proud owner of 11 NBA Championship rings, and all of them can be attributed to bringing The Triangle Offense to prominence and unlocking another level in the teams he coached.

Prior to Jackson’s promotion to head coach of the Bulls, Michael Jordan was a league MVP and led the NBA in scoring, under coach Doug Collins. But his teams never got to the NBA Finals, not until Phil and the Triangle came along. The new system forced MJ to make some sacrifices, but the reward was championship after championship.

But what if Michael Jordan didn’t embrace the change and make the sacrifice necessary? The crew at The Jump tackled that very question this week. Paul Pierce and Tracy McGrady, two well-known scorers in their own right, agreed that with or without Phil and the Triangle, MJ was destined to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy.

“In implementing the Triangle offense, they felt like Jordan could still be at his best, but it would help the other guys around him. Would Jordan have been great without the Triangle? Absolutely, because in every era, when you look at it, the best player always won a championship,” Paul said. “He was always going to be successful no matter what offense you designed around him.”