As associate coach, Kurt Rambis has aided rookie Derek Fisher in writing up practice plans, selecting training-camp offensive and defensive drills and often giving a discourse in triangle amid their marathon practices.

But Rambis, a former Knicks draft pick, hopes his biggest help to Fisher is getting him to cope with the pressures of coaching in New York.

“I’m giving him countless suggestions, even how to monitor his time,’’ Rambis told The Post in his first interview since his July hire. “Even something as small as making sure he works out. It’s important for all head coaches to find that stretch of time. Because the job is very consuming and becomes an obsession. Derek is a perfectionist, constantly thinking about the game. He did it as a player and it’s worse when you become a head coach. I want him to find time to do it.’’

Rambis was a key offseason hire to ensure Fisher’s smooth transition from player to head coach. His presence relating to Fisher can be seen as vital as president Phil Jackson, who has been surprisingly hands-off and hasn’t traveled to any of the three road preseason games.

Rambis was a Lakers assistant for 14 seasons and won four titles with Jackson as head coach and Fisher as point guard. The rest of the new coaching staff includes longtime Jackson soldier Jim Cleamons, former Oklahoma City assistant Brian Keefe and the Lakers’ Rasheed Hazzard.

“I think Phil will always try to help out as he’s got a tremendous basketball mind and wants to mentor young coaches,’’ Rambis said. “He has a belief in how basketball should be played. We always go to him for questions and bounce ideas off him. But he also understands the dynamic that players and coaches have to find a way to work together. He understands that dynamic.’’

This was no slam-dunk decision for Rambis to move cross-country from Los Angeles. His wife, Linda, works as a marketing executive for Jackson’s fiancée, Lakers president Jeanie Buss.

Rambis interviewed for the Lakers’ coaching job last spring after Mike D’Antoni resigned, but knew all along Byron Scott was the favorite.

“I didn’t feel at the top of their list, I really didn’t,’’ Rambis said. “There were internal rumors about Byron. Why they waited so long, I have no idea. ’’

Jackson put on a fullcourt press and offered him, as The Post reported, a lucrative package for a lead assistant at $1.4 million per year.

“[Jackson] knows my work ethic, knows my understanding of the offense,’’ Rambis said. “He was intent to hire me. He wanted to convince me this would be a great situation.

“It’s hard not to imagine being involved in basketball and not having some intrigue for the Knicks and playing or coaching at the Garden. Having an opportunity to work with Phil and Derek, I looked at it as a great opportunity to get them back to the upper echelon where it belongs.’’

His three kids, who are in their 20s, are also back in Los Angeles.

“The only thing that’s awkward is being away from my wife,’’ Rambis said. “She’s planned a lot of trips to New York.”

So he’s back for a second stint. Rambis was drafted by the Knicks out of Santa Clara in the second round in 1980. He is one of 22 players in Knicks history to be on the active roster but never get into a game.

As the story goes, Rambis asked to be waived in training camp because a team in Greece made him an offer. He saw 13 players with guaranteed pacts for an 11-man roster and he wasn’t one of them.

“I thought I did well in camp, but had a conversation with Red Holzman,’’ Rambis said. “I told him if I had an opportunity to make the team, I wanted to stay here. If I don’t have opportunity, if he’d be willing to let me go and take advantage of it. He told me, ‘You’re playing great. We like what you’re doing.’ This was after the morning session.’’

When Rambis arrived for the evening practice, Holzman pulled him into his office.

“He said, ‘Kurt, we decided that you should take advantage of that [Greece] opportunity. But would you mind practicing with us this evening?’ ’’

When the Greek opportunity fell through after Rambis failed to get proper clearance from FIBA, the Knicks called him again in January after Sly Williams got hurt. Rambis signed a 10-day contract, but never played.

“I wasn’t there long enough to get a great appreciation as coach,’’ Rambis said of Jackson’s mentor.

One misnomer about Rambis is the triangle offense has been his basketball life. As a Lakers forward, there was no geometry in “Showtime.” Even in his head-coaching stint in Minnesota, it wasn’t all triangle.

“I didn’t grow up playing it,’’ Rambis said. “I played fastbreak basketball with the Lakers and flex offense in college. Teams have won NBA titles playing myriad of offensive systems. It does present the right way to play ball in the way I see it. Structure, organization and formation you play out of. It encourages the right things — player movement and unselfish play.”

The Wolves stint was a disaster — compiling a 32-132 record in two seasons (2009-11). The Wolves had drafted point guard Ricky Rubio, but he stayed in Spain.

“Everybody assumed I was just running it because I talked of aspects about it at my press conference,’’ Rambis said. “But I wanted a one-guard front as opposed to the triangle’s two-guard front. I had parts of the triangle but not running the triangle the way we are now.

“I was looking forward to coaching Rubio, which never happened, and with Kevin Love, using that offense around two excellent players with a format and organization.’’

Rambis is so far impressed how eager the players are to learn the triangle and the coaching staff genuinely is pleased how far they’ve come since Day 1 at West Point.

“We have a long way to go,’’ Rambis said. “But the players are inquisitive, eager to learn, want to be coached. They’re receptive. You want to do it again, we’ll do it again — from Carmelo [Anthony] all the way down. Kobe [Bryant] and Michael [Jordan] played in the system and there’s no reason Carmelo can’t be as equally as efficient.”