The Knicks' plan is going well, but there are no certainties

WASHINGTON

As the Knicks prepare for their 10th game of the season, their plan is going along as expected. Their 3-6 record is an aside to the real goal of making it to the summer with a developmental season behind them.

First-year coach David Fizdale, overseeing the process without the constraints and pressures that wore down last year’s man at the top, Jeff Hornacek, has handed the ball to an assortment of players too young to drink and let them learn on the job. Mistakes are forgiven as long as effort is in place, a formula that has kept them in games against more talented and experienced teams and sated a fan base pleased to see the hard work and hustle.

It’s all going swimmingly, but you can’t help but wonder how it will end up if not everything goes as planned. The plan — the process — still requires a lot of variables to fall into place for the end result to come to fruition.

Kristaps Porzingis is still a ghost, a 7-3 suit model who joins the team for huddles in practice and at games but has to recover from the torn ACL that has sidelined him since February and could keep him out for the entire season.

Watching Kevin Durant light up Madison Square Garden brought the real question to the forefront. Can the Knicks land a star with the salary-cap space that this patient plan will provide this summer? As much as players talk about the Garden being a mecca, few have opted to make the pilgrimage in recent years.

The LeBron James chase in 2010 still pains the organization. The Knicks settled for Amar’e Stoudemire — a nice consolation prize until injuries hampered his output. But as players have moved around the league, the Knicks have been on the outside looking in, with the biggest signings of Phil Jackson’s four-year tenure being Robin Lopez and Joakim Noah.

The current front office spent big once, bringing Tim Hardaway Jr. back to New York, but a star in his prime is what they are seeking. Durant, Kawhi Leonard and Kyrie Irving will be on the market this summer unless they sign extensions before that. With the way free agency works, all would have to leave more money on the table from their current teams if both sides are offering max contracts. For example, Durant would have to leave the best team in basketball and also leave about $30 million behind.

While Durant praised the Garden when he came to New York last week, he also has told reporters that he wants all the money. Leonard already has dropped plenty of hints that Los Angeles is his preferred destination. Irving has proclaimed his intention to remain in Boston.

Knicks executives Steve Mills and Scott Perry have maintained that they don’t want to trade their young players or draft picks or shift from this plan. But is it good enough to develop lottery picks such as Kevin Knox and Frank Ntilikina and search for youthful energy from the likes of Mitchell Robinson, Damyean Dotson and Allonzo Trier, as well as the expected lottery pick to come after this season? Will signing a second-tier free agent be enough to make all this worthwhile?

And given the presence of solid teams in the Celtics and 76ers in their own division, can the Knicks contend if they can’t lure that star?

For now, it’s 73 games away.

My name is Luka

After the Knicks got their first look at Mavericks rookie Luka Doncic, a Dallas reporter asked David Fizdale how his team had neutralized the 6-7 guard. Fizdale wasn’t buying it.

“I don’t know about neutralized him,” Fizdale said, grabbing a boxscore and noting Doncic’s line — 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists. “I mean, come on, man. He had 18, nine and six. Who’s this guy to you? That’s a heck of a line. He almost had a triple-double. Yeah, man, I ain’t buying that. That kid can play. That’s a nice line. I know a lot of guys that would like to have that line right there. I think he’s a heck of a player. I think they hit a home run with him. He’s a tough cover, man. And if 18 is holding him down, then I’ll take it.”

Doncic has scored in double figures in each of his first nine games and is averaging 19.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.6 assists. The only rookies to average 20 points, six rebounds and four assists in NBA history are Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Elgin Baylor, Sidney Wicks and Larry Bird.

Channel surfing

While some NBA players can point to older players whom they idolized — running YouTube highlights on a loop and trying to mimic the moves, as Kevin Knox said he did with Kevin Durant — Frank Ntilikina watched the games differently. “I was watching everyone,” he said. “Most people watch Michael Jordan. I was watching everyone on the floor. And one month I’d watch him, then I’d watch another player. I wanted to take a little from each player and put it in my game.”

Top student

Knicks rookie center Mitchell Robinson already has changed expectations. Plans for him to develop in the G League were scrapped and he has joined the starting lineup. He’s a very raw 19-year-old, but sometimes he opens eyes with plays that are just, well, different. He took a lob from Lance Thomas on Friday, leaping and twisting as he caught it, and slammed in a reverse dunk.

“I was high in the air, so why not go ahead and do something?” Robinson said. “I could have turned my whole body around, but it was like, why not just go backwards?”

“You should see in practice,” David Fizdale said. “He does stuff in practice, I guarantee you if they put him in a dunk contest, he’d be a finalist in that one for sure because he does stuff sometimes that we’re like, the whole team’s like, ‘Did he just do that?’ He’s a freak of nature athletically. The part I like most about him is he’s a student of the game and he’s really growing into a young pro.”

The Baker look

Ron Baker has had little time on the court, but that hasn’t stopped fans from recognizing him — or someone like him. On Wednesday at Madison Square Garden, a quintet of fans dressed as Baker for Halloween — a shaggy mop of blond hair and No. 31 jerseys — and he posed with them before the game.

When he took the court in Dallas for a pregame workout, an early-arriving Mavs fan spotted him and said a hello, sort of. As Baker headed back to the locker room, he said, “A fan just told me they mistook me for Dallas Cowboys receiver] Cole Beasley.”