Trade clouds lifted, now shine on court

SO THE sky didn’t fall on Madison Square Garden Thursday evening, and cooler heads prevailed. The Knicks weren’t able to pull off a heist, and neither were they snookered into a bad trade. There will be no charts and graphs recalling Bill Russell for Easy Ed Macauley, or Joe Barry Carroll for Robert Parrish and Kevin McHale.

Danny Ainge, Red Auerbach’s spiritual descendant, left the Knicks alone.

So now Knicks fans will turn their lonely eyes toward Frank Ntilikina, the Belgian-born, French-league point guard who probably will become their best defender on the day he shows up — though that’s not exactly a high bar — and is very much a cornerstone of who and what the Knicks hope to be in the next few years. So there’s that. The 7-foot-3 purple elephant in the room, of course, was nowhere near the room. He was 4,200 miles away in his native Latvia. It was just past 3 o’clock in the morning in Latvia when the Knicks selected Ntilikina. We’ll assume Porzingis woke up to that bit of news. And also this one: He’s still a Knick. If it seems like his world is every bit the same as it was when he went to bed Thursday night, though, Porzingis is mistaken. It’s funny what happens when you spend a couple of days as the object of trade talks. Most Knicks fans wanted him to stay. Some were open to a deal. Neither was right, neither was wrong, and as it turned out neither had to fret. A deal didn’t happen. Porzingis is still a Knick.

Now, he has to decide what he is going to be.

Now, he has to show he truly is worth all the hand-wringing and all the saloon back-and-forth and all the water-cooler banter, that he indeed is the franchise player the Knicks believe he can be, that the world of potential that has teased and taunted from the start of his rookie season truly is something on which the Knicks can bank.

Phil Jackson was reluctant to talk about Porzingis (or Carmelo Anthony, or Derrick Rose, or any other player who had been property of the Knicks for longer than half an hour) and that was understandable because absent trading him, the Knicks president has a whole summer and beyond to ponder Porzingis, to wonder about him, to fret about who he is and what he can become.

Keeping him here sends a wordless message anyway: The Knicks still plan on building whatever they will build around him, even if Anthony happens still to be on the roster when camp opens. That’s how it should be. And now Porzingis has to deliver for real on his early speed, on his early promise. That’s how it should be, too.

The player to whom Porzingis is most closely linked, Dirk Nowitzki, took his first great leap as a third-year player, averaging 21.8 points (first of 12 straight years he topped 20-plus) and 9.2 rebounds. There still was plenty of room for improvement, and improve Nowitzki did. But it was in 2000-2001 — his age-22 season — when we first saw for real what Nowitzki would be.

This will be Porzingis’ age-22 season, too (his birthday is in August). If Barclays Center filled with boos two years ago when the Knicks selected him with the No. 4 pick, there were plenty of Knicks fans who wore No. 6 jerseys to Brooklyn on Thursday hoping they wouldn’t be headed for the bottom of a drawer in the attic.

The reaction when Adam Silver read Ntilikina’s name could best be described as relief. If some Knicks fans might have preferred they go with Malik Monk, who was still available? That all will be determined across the next few years. The Knicks didn’t hit the home run they might have dreamed of by agreeing to field offers for Porzingis.

But they didn’t strike out, either. Porzingis is still a Knick. Most Knicks fans seem happy about it. Now it’s time for him to justify that faith for real. If he’s going to behave like a bigtimer, blowing off his exit interview?

Time for him to play like a big-timer. Starting now.