The long, slow crawl toward the commencement of the 2018-19 NBA season — the one where Steve Mills, Scott Perry and David Fizdale would take center stage — continued with the three doing exactly that the week before training camp began.



Fittingly, in the lobby of Madison Square Garden’s Hulu theater, Mills led Perry and Fizdale across the stage. The hope for everyone involved is that the three end up looking more like the three wise men than the three stooges.



Everything done to this point — the hiring of Perry, the team’s pouncing on Fizdale and the shopping of both Joakim Noah and Courtney Lee — has been with an eye toward the summer of 2019. That’s true whether Perry would admit it or not.



“Our goal this year is to really give this 2018-19 team our undivided attention, and really watch this young group grow,” Perry deflected when asked about the team’s distant plans.



“The potential...