Kristaps Porzingis won’t meet new Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek until late June when he returns from Latvia, but he already is a big believer in the new coach.
According to an NBA source, Porzingis may accompany Hornacek and the Knicks summer league team to Orlando, where practices start in late June, but won’t play in any of the games in early July.
“I think he’s a very smart coach,’’ Porzingis said in an ESPN interview from his youth?camp in his hometown of Liepaja, Latvia. “He knows how to use his players and that’s exactly what we need.”
Porzingis was not a big fan of interim coach Kurt Rambis early on, The Post has reported.?Porzingis?was placed into the post too often and also got yanked after short stints, without being able to find a rhythm.
Hornacek told MSG Network he feels Porzingis will be an All-Star starter one day and feels he should be free to play at the 3-point line or post up, depending on the matchup.
“That’s exactly what I have to be, the kind of player I have to be,” Porzingis told ESPN. “A big is on me, use my advantage from the outside, face him up. Smaller [defender], that’s one of the things that I’ve really got to work on. When a really small, aggressive guard is on me, be able to get that advantage down low.”
Porzingis added: “And we’ll see if we can get some more players this offseason. But I think we have enough talent and having [Carmelo Anthony] makes everybody better. So if we know how to go from there, using Melo, myself and involving everybody, using everybody’s strengths and putting it all together, then we’ll be a different team. We’ll be able to succeed.”
Porzingis has been in Europe since two weeks after the season ended and was monitoring Phil Jackson’s seven-week coaching search.
“There were a lot of names, coming up — David Blatt, [Frank] Vogel,’’ Porzingis said. “Hornacek just came out of the nowhere. I think it’s a really good decision from Phil and [GM] Steve [Mills].”
Porzingis got Knicks teammates Kyle O’Quinn, Kevin Seraphin and Sasha Vujacic to visit his camp. Knicks assistant coach Joshua Longstaff, who is expected to remain on Hornacek’s staff, also is in Latvia, working out Porzingis.
At his introductory press conference on June 3, Hornacek said Porzingis had texted him after he got hired, informing him he was working out a lot in Latvia.
“I didn’t want [him] to be thinking that I’m at home just resting,” Porzingis told ESPN. “I’m actually working, doing some individual work.’’
Porzingis also went to Madrid to visit former Spanish league teammate Willy Hernangomez, a center who is expected to be on the Knicks roster next season after being drafted in the second round (35th overall) last year.