In an effort to find small advantages, David Fizdale pushed practice back two hours later than they were under Jeff Hornacek to give his players more time to sleep every morning. 

“We actually do a lot of education about sleep with our guys because everything is happening in your sleep — the healing of your brain, the healing of your body, the growth of muscle. That rest affects reaction time, decision-making, all of those things. We really stress it to the guys. We try to teach them the things that will affect their sleep and hurt their sleep," said Fizdale.

Fizdale also brought in a doctor during training camp to discuss the importance of sleep to his players and handed out orange-tinted glasses that suppress blue light intake to wear on team flights.

Teams around the league have focused on increasing the amount of sleep their players receive throughout the season, including not taking red-eye flights in the middle of back-to-back games. A 2011 Stanford study found a correlation between players getting more sleep and an increase in 3-point and free throw accuracy. 

David Fizdale said he doesn't expect Kristaps Porzingis to return to practice any time soon. 

Fizdale, however, did say that Porzingis has been an excellent leader during his rehab.

"I'm so happy with him under the circumstances," Fizdale said. "I know it's killing him to not play. But he's in there [at the practice facility] every day rooting these guys on."

Some have doubted whether Porzingis will play at all this season as he recovers from a torn ACL.

"Why would he come back?" one executive said.

Team president Steve Mills said that the New York Knicks were focused on developing their young players and internal team culture to make themselves more attractive to free agents.

"Our focus is on the guys that we have right now, developing them, and also developing the environment, or the culture, that exists around our team," Mills said.

Mills added that he wants to find a core group of players to build around within the current roster. 

"If we don’t make this a place the guys internally feel something good is happening and believe in what we’re doing, that’s not going to be attractive to people who are on the outside...the plan is that we develop an environment that free agents should want to be here. But we also hope that some of the guys on our roster force us to pay them. Our goal is to develop these guys and make them as good as they possibly can be so that we have some hard decisions to make and that we feel like there are more people than just the three rookies we can grow around".

Steve Mills suggested signing Joakim Noah to a four-year, $72 million contract during the 2016 offseason wasn't something he was not in favor of as general manager under Phil Jackson.

Noah recently gave an interview in which he blamed partying too much in New York for one of the reasons his tenure with the team lasted one and a half seasons.

“Obviously I’m disappointed it worked out the way it worked out," said Mills. "I don’t know that. Had it been just my decision I don’t know that I would have signed him. There was a reason why we thought that this was the best thing for the culture and the environment of our team. When the speculation was why don’t we handle Joakim one way and we decided to handle it a different way, there was a reason why we handled it the way we decided to handle it.”

Kristaps Porzingis has made good progress with the rehabilitation of his torn ACL.

Porzingis will be re-evaluated in mid-February.

Porzingis underwent surgery to repair the ACL in his left knee on February 13th.

Zion Williamson was impressed by the atmosphere at Madison Square Garden in Duke's 69-58 win over Texas Tech.

Williamson added, "this is the Garden. A lot of greats have come through here. My favorite great to come through here was probably Bernard King because my stepdad talked about him a lot how he just put the ball in the basket...playing 41 games here wouldn't be so bad".

Williamson finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds in the game with several NBA executives, including Knicks president Steve Mills, in attendance.

The New York Knicks have expressed preliminary interest in trading for Jabari Parker.

The Knicks are not prepared to trade any first round picks as they enter a pivotal 2019 offseason.

Parker is in Year 1 of a two-year, $40 million deal with the second season being a team option. The Knicks could conceivably look to unload some 2019 salary in a deal for Parker.

The Washington Wizards have agreed to sign Ron Baker.

Baker was recently released by the New York Knicks.

James Dolan revealed that he couldn't rule out selling the New York Knicks if he received the right offer.

Dolan said there have been "feelers" of offers upward of $5 billion for the Knicks, but that "no one has come through with a bona fide offer."

"You hear numbers all the time," Dolan told ESPN when asked about selling the team. "... I think people have sent feelers out, but never any that were pursued. Yeah, [the feelers are] around that number [$5 billion], but those things, it's like a stock price. It's only important if you're going to buy or sell."

Doland took over as chairman of Madison Square Garden in 1999.

Dolan said he loves the Knicks and Rangers, "but you still have a responsibility to your shareholders."

"You have a responsibility as the guy who runs the place to deliver on that for them, that's being open and transparent. And so in that position, I could never say that I wouldn't consider selling the Knicks. Now, my family is not in that position, and they are the majority shareholders. They hold the majority of the vote. ... As a majority owner, I don't want to sell, either. As the head of the public company, you can't say you can't sell, because then you're telling your shareholders that your own personal feelings about your assets are more important than their money. And they won't invest with you if you do that."

Joakim Noah spent two seasons with the New York Knicks after signing a four-year, $72 million deal.

Noah now admits that he wasn't quite mature enough to handle living in New York.

"I'm too lit to play in New York City," Noah said on The Chris Vernon Show. "I was too lit. Memphis is perfect for me. Chicago was lit, too, but I was younger. You can recover faster."

Noah signed with the Memphis Grizzlies several weeks after his buyout with the Knicks.

Noah's tenure with the Knicks ended following an altercation with Jeff Hornacek.

"It happened so fast," Noah said. "One year I'm playing 35 minutes a game. And then injuries started piling up. I got this crazy deal with the Knicks, and then the next thing you know I'm not playing anymore. Get kicked off the team. It was a crazy time. I wasn't sure I was gonna get an opportunity to play again."

Noah remained in New York and continued to party before deciding to head to Malibu to rededicate himself to playing again.

"When I got kicked off the team, it was New York Fashion Week," Noah said. "I was getting paid a lot of money and I had no direction. I really had to make a decision of how I wanted to live my life. If I kept going in the direction I was going in and stayed in New York, then I probably wouldn't be here right now."