If Kurt Rambis doesn’t work out as the Knicks’ new lead defensive assistant, perhaps Courtney Lee should take the job.

Last week, Lee suggested part of the problem with the Knicks’ defense might be that it practices against the triangle offense — a system no other team utilizes — instead of working against more popular pick-and-roll-based attacks.

On Tuesday, the Knicks spent the majority of practice working on defense against a variety of pick-and-roll sets, a shift the players seemed to believe was overdue.

“Now we have a legit way of doing it and we’ve got to stick to that script,” Carmelo Anthony said. “The foundation was laid. We went through it, we had a two-hour practice and a long film session. … We went over the schemes and the foundation. That’s all you can ask for is to work at it. It was a good day of laying something down.”

Jeff Hornacek said the staff also stressed that players need to switch off fewer screens, which has resulted in too many open looks. The Knicks rank 27th in points per game allowed (109.8) and opponent’s field-goal percentage (.464), while ranking third-worst in the NBA in opposing 3-point percentage (.379).

“We want to try and be more aggressive on our man,” Hornacek said. “I think we’re probably switching too much. It’s not like we won’t ever [switch], but we’re relying on switching. We want our guys to guard the guy that has the ball, not expect help. Try to guard the guy like you’re not gonna get any and then the help will be there. It puts a little more responsibility on the guy that has the ball.

“We felt going into the season that switching might’ve been a strength of ours and maybe it’s not.”

Nets coach Kenny Atkinson returns Wednesday to Madison Square Garden, where he worked as an assistant with the Knicks for four seasons (2008-12). Anthony, the only Knick who remains on the roster from that time, believes Atkinson’s first head-coaching opportunity is well-deserved.

“I’m happy for him. Kenny was a guy who spent countless hours here in the gym,” Anthony said. “He was after practice, before practice, at night, never sleeping, film, he was that gym rat. So to see him to come up through the ranks and be the head [coach] over there, it feels good for me to see somebody I’ve seen come up from the bottom and now is a head coach.”

The Knicks assigned guard Ron Baker and center Marshall Plumlee to the Westchester Knicks and they are expected to play for the D-League team Wednesday night at Westchester County Center in an exhibition game against the Long Island Nets.

In two games with the Knicks, Baker averaged 4.5 points in 11.5 minutes. Plumlee hasn’t appeared in a regular-season game.