Warriors assistant coach Luke Walton said he knows he could cost himself a shot at the vacant NBA head coaching jobs, but he’s not planning on rushing into any more interviews.

“I know the way this works you can’t just tell everybody, ‘I’m not going to interview anywhere until the end of the playoffs,’ because most coaches have hired by then,’’ Walton told the San Jose Mercury News on Monday night.

“So I’m very comfortable and I love where I’m at right now. I love coming to work every day. I also do want to be a head coach someday, whether that’s next year or the year after that. I’m going to pursue those opportunities. Honestly, my mindset is mainly with these playoffs that we’re in right now. But knowing while I’m doing that, that I love my job here, I’m not going to rush off into anything else.”

Walton didn’t sound as if he was averse to taking a rebuilding job like the Knicks, who have won a combined 49 games the past two seasons.

“I love the idea of that challenge, of trying to rebuild and kind of recreate what we have here,” said Walton, who went 39-4 as interim head coach to start this season while Steve Kerr recovered from back surgery.

“That sounds like it’s a lot of fun and something I’d be interested in. But that doesn’t need to be next year.”

Perhaps protecting the Zen Master from tampering charges, Walton and Kerr each said Walton’s chat with Knicks president Phil Jackson on Saturday was not related to the Knicks’ head-coach opening. Kerr said Jackson had not asked permission from Warriors GM Bob Myers to speak with Walton, and indicated if they chat again, Jackson needs to set it up formally.

Kerr added he doubts he would let Walton talk to teams until there’s a break between playoff rounds. Jackson chatted with Walton on the eve of the Warriors’ playoff opener.

“There was no job interview whatsoever,’’ Walton said. “It was just a conversation, which is not that rare for Phil and I to have.”

The Post reported Sunday Jackson and Walton talked about the Knicks opening via phone. In addition, the Nets recently spoke to Walton about their opening, but Walton pulled himself out of consideration before the Nets gave Kenny Atkinson the job. Kerr maintains no team has asked the Warriors for permission to speak to Walton.

Bill Walton, his father, has advised he stay put because he won’t find another situation like Golden State. The Warriors are the defending champions and coming off an NBA-record 73-win season. They lead the Rockets, 2-0, in Round 1 of the NBA playoffs.

Luke Walton said there’s no easy gig.

“All jobs are going to be tough,’’ Walton told the Mercury News. “What we were able to walk into here in Golden State doesn’t happen for the most part in this league. This is all challenging stuff. But whenever you take a head job, there’s going to be different types of challenges, and most of the time one of those is going to be taking over a team that’s not nearly as talented as the one we took over here.’’

Jackson phoned Walton two days after he said at a press conference he would start reaching out to prospective candidates — but only ones he knows.

It’s quite possible that after The Post report about their conversation, Myers or Warriors owner Joe Lacob took offense to Jackson’s failure to go through proper channels.

Walton and Kerr stuck up for Jackson, saying no tampering took place. That’s what friends are for.

“Luke and Phil have had contact just like Phil and I have had contact, but not anything to do with the job,’’ Kerr claimed. “That would be tampering. If somebody wants to speak with Luke, they know the protocol. They would call Bob and we will handle it just like we handled with Alvin [Gentry, an assistant coach] last year.”