NEW YORK – Jeff Hornacek has problems. He did before the Knicks traveled to Cleveland and were embarrassed Tuesday night in a 117-88 season-opening rout, but that beating magnified them. Derrick Rose missed 16 days, nine practices and five preseason games (successfully) fighting a civil sexual assault charge and is still getting up to speed. Carmelo Anthony began this season as he has begun many, scoring (19 points) but not passing much (three assists). And no player seems comfortable in Hornacek’s triangle-hybrid offense.

Yet no issue figures to be more important than this: How does the Knicks’ coach foster the development of second-year big man Kristaps Porzingis? How, on a team with a pair of ball-dominating stars, can Hornacek ensure Porzingis doesn’t get lost in the shuffle?

Last year was a breakout for the Knicks forward. Booed on draft night, Porzingis quickly became a fan favorite. At 7-foot-3 and 240-pounds, Porzingis emerged as a matchup nightmare. He had the size to post up smaller players and the perimeter skills to decimate bigger ones. Porzingis faded down the stretch — his shooting percentage dipped from 42.6 percent before the All-Star break to 40.8 percent after and his three-point percentage went from 34.9 percent to 29.4 percent — but his final line (14.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.9 blocks) earned him a runner-up spot for NBA Rookie of the Year.

Is Kristaps Porzingis' best position at center? (Getty Images) More

Expectations are high for Porzingis this season, with the usual offseason conditioning improvements — Porzingis packed on seven pounds from the end of last season and dedicated the summer to strengthening his lower body — coupled with the natural progression of his skills, some scouts are predicting an All-Star honor. Much of that will depend on Hornacek, who admits he’s never seen a player with Porzingis’ size and skill set.

“I played with a guy named Alvin Adams [with Phoenix in the 1980s], to go way back, and Alvin wasn’t 7 foot, but he was a shooting center,” Hornacek told The Vertical. “He didn’t shoot threes, but he could get up and down the court, block shots, really pass the ball. [Porzingis] though is a unique guy. You can find 7-foot guys who like to shoot threes — I played with [7-7] Manute Bol, he liked to shoot threes. But he couldn’t get up and down the court. KP is a different type of player.”

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Improving Porzingis’ post play has been a major point of emphasis for Hornacek early. Last season teams regularly deployed smaller players on Porzingis — the Celtics, for example, utilized 6-4 guard Marcus Smart on him — essentially daring Porzingis to beat them in the post. When teams do that this season, Hornacek wants Porzingis to make them pay.

“The thing we need to get him to do more of is when there is an advantage, he has to take it,” Hornacek said. “Teams have already tried to go small on him. He needs to be patient and take them down in the post area. He’s worked on his post turnaround game. When they put a small guy on him, he can shoot over the top of them. Finding that balance is important.”

With Porzingis, rival coaches share two concerns. First, the triangle. Hornacek deployed the triangle sporadically during the preseason, and while theoretically the offense could create more post opportunities for Porzingis, it has the potential to take away Porzingis’ ability to create mismatches.

“Think of it this way, if I know he’s going to one spot, I can prepare for that,” said an Eastern Conference assistant coach. “Where [Porzingis] is really scary is when he’s all over the floor. He’s hard to prepare for that way.”

Then there is Porzingis’ position. As a power forward, Porzingis is dangerous, but his quickness and shooting ability are more easily defended and his perimeter defense can be a liability, as it was in the ugly outing against Cleveland Tuesday night. As a center, Porzingis can be lethal, a mismatch nightmare comparable to Dirk Nowitzki in his early days in Dallas, but with rim-protecting skills Nowitzki never had. The Knicks, though, inked Joakim Noah to a four-year, $72 million contract last summer, a perplexing decision that effectively ensures that Porzingis will share the floor with the former All-Star center.

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