With All-Star forward Kristaps Porzingis set to miss most, if not, the entire season due to an ACL injury, the New York Knicks have no choice but to focus on player development. Fortunately, this gives them the opportunity have an extended look at their highly-touted rookie Kevin Knox for the entire season.

Despite being a highly-touted prospect coming into New York, he did admit that he is still learning, per Marc Berman of The New York Post.

“This is all learning for me,’’ Knox said. “Like he says all the time, I’m going to get my butt kicked a lot and I’m going to have a lot of mistakes. It’s part of a rookie year, you’re going to have ups and downs. It just shows how much confidence he has in me keeping me in the starting lineup. As I keep playing more, get used to playing in the system, get used to playing Madison Square Garden, New York, I’ll get better and I’ll be able to find my rhythm.”

The ninth overall pick of the 2018 draft acknowledged that he will have growing pains and will experience a roller coaster ride throughout his rookie season.

Knox caught eyes with an impressive showing in summer league. However, he wasn't as good in the preseason. In five outings, he averaged just 8.8 points on 32.7 percent field goal shooting. Moreover, he only made 3 of 19 shots from beyond the arc, which was an abysmal 15.8 percent.

Despite his mediocre preseason, head coach David Fizdale reiterated that Knox will be the starting small forward for the season. He's all in on throwing his rookie into the fire early into his NBA career.

There is a lot of pressure playing in Madison Square Garden. It's almost inevitable at this point that he will experience many ups and downs. But this experience will only serve him better in the long run.

As much as Knicks fans have been hearing this phrase for decades, they just have to be patient with him. He is, in fact, just 19 years old.