Rookie Jerian Grant is giving his 3-point shooting more than the old college try.

The Knicks have recently put more of an emphasis on improving the former Notre Dame point guard’s stroke from downtown. During his days with the Irish, Grant said he had a propensity to take step-back and fade-away 3-pointers. That formula hasn’t worked well with the line’s added distance in the NBA.

“It’s a deeper shot, it’s a little tougher, so it is just trying to get all my momentum going forward so it is an easier shot,” said Grant before the Knicks’ 107-93 loss to the Cavaliers Saturday night at the Garden. “Nothing really mechanical.”

Grant is shooting just 15-of-77 from behind the arc this season for a minuscule 19.4 percent. The 6-foot-4 point guard made threes at a 31.6 percent clip in his final season in South Bend. That level of success hasn’t followed him to New York.

“It harder to shoot off the dribble,” Grant said. “Some of the things I did in college with the way shorter 3-point line, it’s tougher to do now because the line is so far back, but I am adjusting to it.”

Knicks coach Kurt Rambis said Grant is slowly make progress and is seeing results in practice. The challenge now is getting him to use his improved shooting more regularly during games.

“You’re kind of changing players’ motion memory,” Rambis said. “And you’ve got to re-orient them, you’ve got to kind of get away from the habits they’ve had in the past and built new habits and that takes time. So you can work on it in practice and you can stop and you can sit there and focusing on him but then out in the game every player has a tendency to go back to what their body feels comfortable doing so it’s going to be a process, It’s going to take time but he’s coachable, he’s a willing learner and that’s the first step.”

Grant didn’t get much of a chance to do that against Cleveland. He took just one three and scored two points in limited minutes, thanks to a strong night from Langston Galloway.

Reinforcing the change to Grant means the coaching is on him during pregame warm ups, constantly reminding him to not let his momentum carry him backward. Grant said it is getting easier and understands that adding a long-range shot to his repertoire will allow him to realize the potential the Knicks see in him.

“If I’m knocking down shots it just opens up all the other part of my game,” Grant said. “What I do to get the basket can really help this team out.”

He still has a ways to go before he reaches that point with his outside shooting.

“It’s getting there,” Rambis said. “It’s obviously not where we need it be or where he would like it to be but he’s moving in that direction.”