NOT-SO-FREE WILLY

Willy Hernangomez returns to the Garden still glued to the bench and still receiving high praise from his former teammates.

The 23-year-old center, who went from an All-Rookie cornerstone to out of the rotation and expendable in less than a year in New York, has failed to crack the Hornets’ rotation after being traded there for two secondround picks last month.

Ahead of Saturday’s game against the Knicks, he played in just nine of 16 games with Charlotte while averaging 1.2 points and 2 rebounds in 4.9 minutes. Still, the center who supplanted him in the rotation in New York — Enes Kanter — resurrected the flattering comparison to Hernangomez once used by Carmelo Anthony.

“I still talk to him,’’ Kanter said. “He’s doing an unbelievable job working out and an unbelievable job of working on his body. I think he’s a young version of Marc Gasol. If he works hard enough, he can be as a good as Marc Gasol.”