Andrea Bargnani, who missed three preseason games with a sore hamstring, remained limited at Knicks practice Friday. But coach Derek Fisher isn’t overly concerned the power forward is falling behind the rest of the class.
“Andrea’s a pretty intelligent guy. He’s doing a good job even while he’s not on the floor for everything, staying close listening, going through things he can go through,” Fisher said. “Being a bigger guy, there’s a lot he has to know but not as much as some of our guards and other wing players.
“One thing about our system, if there are two, three, four guys that really start to grasp it well, it makes it easy for one or two guys to know where to go and what to do. So I think he’ll be fine.”
Travis Outlaw also missed practice with a strained Achilles tendon. ***
Fisher said he likes what he has seen from his starters in recent preseason games, especially on the defensive end.
“It’s been a solid group,” Fisher said. “The defensive end has been solid with that group. Offensively, they are continuing to understand some things. But [with Bargnani] not being available, it’s given us less options on some things in terms of lineups in the front court. … Depending on how things materialize with Andrea over the next few days, we may or may not keep it the same. We want everybody to be ready and available to do what it is we need them to do. Jason Smith has played some good minutes for us the last couple games since he’s been back and there’s no reason why he couldn’t maybe crack into that.”
J.R. Smith reached out to the Giants’ Victor Cruz, a fellow New Jersey guy and knee-surgery guy.
“I talked to him yesterday,” Smith said. “He’s in great spirits, which is pretty much all you can do at this point, get your mind wrapped around it, take your time.
“I told him I was praying for him. He’s got his little girl in his hands, can’t complain.”