MIAMI – Jeff Hornacek said he thinks the Knicks should at least explore addressing the structural flaw in their roster in June’s draft by acquiring a natural small forward.

After trading Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks never brought in a starting small forward. That left Hornacek to play Tim Hardaway Jr. at small forward with Courtney Lee remaining at shooting guard. Both are natural shooting guards.

The Knicks are seeded ninth in the draft, and if they don’t move up into the top three in the lottery, they would be in position to select highly touted small forwards such as Villanova’s Mikal Bridges, Michigan State’s Miles Bridges and Kentucky’s Kevin Knox.

However, there’s speculation the top two point guards in the draft could fall to nine — pint-sized Trae Young, who declared for the draft Tuesday, and Alabama’s Collin Sexton. A prominent mock draft, DraftExpress, has the Knicks taking Sexton at nine, with Young going to the Bulls at eight.

With Hornacek’s status for next season up in the air, he was asked directly what he thinks the Knicks need in the draft.

“If you look around at the top teams in the league, they have multiple guys in the 6-7, 6-8 range with length,” Hornacek said. “We have a lot of guys in the 6-5ish range. [We] just got to get bigger at some of those spots. … You talk about that 6-7, 6-8 guy, everybody in the league wants that guy. You don’t see those guys all over the place.’’

The Knicks enter Wednesday’s game in Miami at 26-45. They were officially eliminated from playoff contention Monday, the result of a spiral that Hornacek attributes more to injuries to Hardaway and Kristaps Porzingis than the lack of a true small forward. But he knows having Lee and Hardaway as the 2-3 is not the ideal combination.

After the Patrick Ewing trade in 2000, then-coach Jeff Van Gundy said the Knicks’ roster had a “a structural flaw” with three shooting guards in Allan Houston, Latrell Sprewell and new addition Glen Rice.

“You can do it that way, but sometimes it’s tough on a young guy like Tim, who’s probably a natural 2 to have to play the 3 all year,’’ Hornacek said. “He took that challenge and did pretty well. Those two guys were able to do it, but it’s not like [GM] Scott [Perry] said [after the Anthony trade], this is our roster, let’s win a championship. It was the understanding, ‘Let’s play who we have with the talent and as years go on, you fill in different spots and go that route.'”

Hardaway admitted he’ll be monitoring how the Knicks redo the roster. One strong option is Lee being traded.

“I haven’t played the 3 ever — the first time playing it for the whole year,” Hardaway said. “You go against strong guys — LeBron [James], KD [Kevin Durant], those are very hard matchups for a guy who is 6-6. It was a learning experience. You have to learn to choose your battles and use your size to your advantage. I got to watch the offseason to see how everything plays out for us.’’

While the Knicks would love to add a small forward this offseason, they also are in “talent acquisition’’ mode, meaning the organization feels it may have to draft the best player on the board. In the unlikely event Young, once touted as the No. 1 pick, falls to No. 9, their interest would have to be piqued despite their young point guard logjam. If Young did fall, that likely would mean someone like Mikal Bridges would have been snapped up already.

With the Knicks experimenting with Frank Ntilikina at shooting guard, that worsens the issue.

“It creates a bigger jam,’’ Hornacek said. “With Frank able to move to the 2, it creates some problems there but it allows us to play two [point guards] together sometimes.’’