Knicks shooting guard Tim Hardaway Jr., coming off his First-Team All-Rookie season, is writing a periodic diary from Las Vegas this week as a member of the U.S. Select Team, which is practicing against Team USA in preparation for FIBA’s World Cup tournament.

LAS VEGAS — The intensity has really picked up over the last two days here at USA Basketball training camp. I think I’ve done a really good job of getting better and holding my own. I’ve definitely been defending better, which is something that comes with experience and from learning each and every day. It is something I really wanted to work on this offseason, because offensively, I felt ahead of the game.

Really, I just try to observe and absorb everything around me. I’ve been paying attention to veteran guys such as Kevin Durant and James Harden, just in how they approach practices and scrimmages as well as their routines.

And even when Coach [Tom] Thibodeau is addressing the national team about man-to-man defensive concepts, I’m listening to every word he says. Coach Thibodeau is regarded as the game’s best defensive coach. We spent a lot of time focusing on zone defense on Wednesday, with Coach Jim Boeheim taking the lead on that. We were running plays teams like Spain, Brazil and Dominican Republic will run against the U.S. next month.

It’s tough because the rules overseas are so different. In the FIBA game, you can stay in the paint. There’s no three-second rule. You can knock the ball off the rim. These are things I’m still learning about international play. Again, as I wrote in my first diary, my goal is one day to be a U.S. Olympian.

On my select team, we really take a lot of pride in what we’re doing here. In one scrimmage against Team USA, one of our squads had a huge comeback win, with Orlando point guard Victor Oladipo getting the game-winning basket. We were all so happy just because we got a victory. It was a very cool moment. By giving our all every day, we’re really getting the national team better and getting them ready to go overseas.

I knew most of the guys in camp before we got here. Bradley Beal, Gordon Hayward, Doug McDermott, Mason and Miles Plumlee and myself all have the same agent — Mark Bartelstein, who is based in Chicago. It’s nice that we’re all here as a group.

It’s great to have a lot of guys from Priority Sports. It makes the agency look good. Every year Bartelstein has all the draft-class kids live in Chicago and train together. The agency knows what it is doing.

Mason, who had a strong rookie season for Brooklyn, even got bumped up to the national team camp the other day after Kevin Love’s withdrawal. He’s doing really well. It was good watching him go out and dominate. That’s what’s he’s doing.

For me, I’ve been knocking down wide-open shots when they’ve been given to me, finishing at the rim and getting my teammates on the select team some open shots by passing to them at the right time and right spot. My confidence has continued to rise and I can’t wait for the real Knicks’ training camp in October.

I heard the great Earl Monroe said this week that I’m “not afraid’’ and I “got the heart for the NBA game’’ and he can “see it in my eyes.’’

All I can say is that’s an honor to hear that from a Hall of Famer. Having that no-fear attitude on the court, with all these great players, is what helped me have a successful rookie season with the Knicks. I always played with a sense of urgency as a rookie.

I know a lot of people overlooked me heading into the draft, but those mock drafts, and really where I was drafted, didn’t mean a thing. I knew coming into last year’s draft that all I had to do was prove to one or two teams that I could play at the next level, and luckily I did. Because if you’re worried about what others are saying, you’re not focused on what really matters.