Hey, Kristaps Porzingis: Welcome to the Knicks’ Dysfunction

Two and a half hours before game time, Kristaps Porzingis was testing the Madison Square Garden rims, finding them rather welcoming and friendly.

“My shot is good,” he said Wednesday evening after launching numerous long-range jumpers for the first time at the self-proclaimed world’s most famous arena.

He later sat at his dressing stall — the one vacated last season by Amar’e Stoudemire — and said he was ready for the expectations and issues that came with the projections, or prayers, that he might be the new savior of the Knicks.

He is only 20, a boyish Latvian giant at 7 feet 3 inches, but Porzingis is as engaging as any native attendee of an American institution of higher dribbling, surprisingly adept with colloquial and cultural customs.

“If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere,” he chirped when asked why he had hoped to land in New York before the N.B.A. draft last June. “If you’re great here, they will love you.”

He knew enough to add that if you stink — though he used a more strident word — “they’ll let you know.” He added, “It’s a tough place.”

He may already understand that the home team has developed a habit of making it even tougher, especially on itself.

Case in point: Wednesday night at the Garden was supposed to be primarily about the joy of six, or No. 6, the debuting rookie Porzingis. The pregame intrigue instead focused off the court, on Derek Fisher, the coach of the Knicks, who began the 2015 preseason by starring in a tabloid tale on Page Six.

On that famous or infamous (depending on who’s reading) New York Post repository of back-room chatter is where no intended leader of young men should wish to be, unless he is hosting the Oscars or about to pilot the hostile takeover of a billion-dollar company.

Fisher landed there after a reported confrontation with Matt Barnes, who plays for the Memphis Grizzlies. According to The Post and other reports, Fisher, who filed for divorce from his wife in March, has had a personal relationship with Gloria Govan, the estranged wife of Barnes, who has appeared on the reality television show “Basketball Wives L.A.”

Fisher did not deny the reports or correct them, and he acknowledged that he addressed his players about them “to make sure before they were asked about it that they heard it from me.” The police in Redondo Beach, Calif., made no mention of Fisher in their detailing of the incident, which occurred Saturday night, and said no charges were filed.

Barnes told reporters Thursday that he had concerns for his son (of being taught the triangle?). But based on what appeared to have happened — and Barnes’s reputation as a hothead with a long list of behavioral transgressions, including accusations of domestic abuse — Fisher was first and foremost a victim, deserving of the “full support” offered by the Knicks and the right to deal privately with a personal situation.

But there is a bigger picture, even if it is one of perception. The head coach of an N.B.A. team is largely responsible for establishing and enforcing standards for player accountability, and now there are questions about what Fisher may have been up to when he left the team over the weekend to see his children, who live in Los Angeles, only to have the incident with Barnes occur at Govan’s home.

Fisher is free to date whomever he chooses, but rest assured there was widespread cringing inside N.B.A. headquarters when it was learned that he has been seeing the estranged wife of a current player, a former Los Angeles Lakers teammate. Shifting though it may be, there is a social line that authority figures should think about at least twice before crossing.

A coach’s sloppy lifestyle is seldom part of a constructive game plan, as the Knicks have learned to varying degrees with Isiah Thomas, the Jets with Rex Ryan and, way back when, the Yankees with Billy Martin.

Fisher, 41, came to New York with the reputation as a soft-spoken, introspective man (and family man). But he also arrived only months removed from being an active player, the life of professional entitlement. It is tempting to cynically wonder if coaching a 17-victory team in the crucible of New York last season and being harshly perceived as the team president Phil Jackson’s marionette would be enough to drive any man to a premature midlife crisis.

On Thursday, Fisher cited plane problems for missing Monday’s practice. He felt that he needed to assure his players, “I’m here, I’m focused, it’s not something that’s going to take me away from who we are and what we’re trying to do.”

But he said: “I guess I can’t control how individually other players and people handle distraction. I think that’s an individual process for each guy.”

The story naturally reinforced the notion that with the Knicks, it’s always something. But with a roster loaded with new players — including Porzingis and Jerian Grant, the team’s other first-round pick — is this what they needed to hear from the coach on their first night’s work at the Garden?

Last season, Porzingis played for a club team in Spain that was as dysfunctional as any team in recent Knicks history. But now he is in the N.B.A., carrying the weight of being the No. 4 pick. What he and Grant most need is a stable organization.

Both had good moments in Wednesday night’s 100-81 victory over a Brazilian league team, Bauru Basket. At 6-4, Grant is a finely tuned athlete who moves well, even on defense, and plays with an encouraging sense of the game. Porzingis obviously needs to be stronger, but, beyond his 3-point range, he is impressively coordinated and, given his height, should eventually be able to get a good shot off with relative ease.

If the night accomplished anything, it was getting a feel for the big stage and all that goes with it.

“The game here at Madison Square Garden with the lights bright is a different experience,” Fisher said.

Something for a young coach to keep in mind with that light shining on him, too.