LOS ANGELES — In the hours before the Knicks played their first game after Kristaps Porzingis tore his anterior cruciate ligament 11 months ago, Tim Hardaway Jr. was insistent for anyone interested in giving up, “Tank is not in my vocabulary. If anybody feels like we should be tanking or should be doing something like that they’re rooting for the wrong team.”
Now, as the Knicks make their way through the season without Porzingis, Hardaway finds himself the one established veteran in the starting lineup and a rebuilding, player development project taking place around him. At 9-29 with eight straight losses heading into a meeting with the Lakers on Friday night, maybe his vocabulary has been expanded.