When Enes Kanter arrived in the Carmelo Anthony trade, the status of Willy Hernangomez as a chief Knicks building block became unhinged.

After not being in the rotation all season, the 23-year-old Spaniard was shipped to Charlotte for two distant second-round picks. As Hernangomez readies for his Garden return Saturday, when the Hornets hit town, Kanter gave him the most glorious of comparisons.

Though Hernangomez has been mostly out of the Hornets rotation, too, Kanter sees a big future.

“I still talk to him,’’ Kanter said. “He’s doing an unbelievable job working out and an unbelievable job of working on his body. I think he’s a young version of Marc Gasol. If he works hard enough, he can be as a good as Marc Gasol.”

That’s probably no longer the thinking of Knicks president Steve Mills, who lobbied to draft Hernangomez in 2015, and new general manager Scott Perry. Otherwise, they would have hung on to Hernangomez rather than give him away for 2020 and 2021 second-rounders.

Because he hardly played this season behind Kanter and Kyle O’Quinn, Hernangomez, who made the 2017 first-team All-Rookie team, saw his trade value vanquished. Ultimately, Hernangomez’s agents requested a trade. Kanter said he tried to encourage Hernangomez to go all-out in practice to show his worth.

“I told him you have to be patient, man,’’ Kanter said. “I remember my first year in the NBA was tough. I wasn’t playing much at all. If you want to go 14, 15 minutes in this league, you gotta work.In practice, we got no friends. In practice, ‘These are my friends.’ You can’t be nice in practice. In practice, that’s where the minutes come. So you have to go out and try to kill it in practice.”

Hernangomez has played in just nine games with Charlotte, with seven DNPs. He’s averaging 4.9 minutes and 1.2 points. Knicks officials started to believe Hernangomez’s low-post skills weren’t as useful in the new age of the NBA and were disappointed he hadn’t improved his jump shot over the summer, when he played for the Spanish National Team in the European Championships.

Kanter was on a roll and chided his backup, O’Quinn, about his former physique.

“I see a picture of Kyle, he was a little chubby,’’ Kanter said. “I’m not going to lie. He worked his body. He takes his shirt off and he’s like a model. I’m not kidding. He worked hard. I actually sent him a diet in training camp.”