NBA

Knicks’ Shumpert shoots for January return

Iman Shumpert is back on his feet, but he is a long way from getting back on the basketball court.

The Knicks guard, who made an appearance yesterday at a Sprint NBA Nation event at South Street Seaport, is back walking under his own power after surgery early last month to repair a torn ACL in his left knee. But he is still expecting to miss the first two months of the season.

“The target date [for my return] is January,” Shumpert told The Post.

That means Shumpert is expecting his return to be closer to eight months, the long end of the six-to-eight-month initial projection for his recovery from the surgery.

Shumpert, who impressed as a defensive stopper in his rookie season, suffered the injury in Game 1 of the Knicks’ first-round playoff exit at the hands of the Heat after averaging 9.5 points in the regular season. The Knicks took him with the 17th pick in last year’s draft.

“It feels great,” Shumpert said of his knee. “[The rehab] is going well. I’ve got a great training staff with me, and I trust them 100 percent. I’m going to them Monday through Friday, and on the weekends I just ice it and do regular stuff.”

Shumpert said it’s been tough to watch the playoffs following the Knicks’ exit, but said it’s added fuel to his fire to return to the court next season.

“That’s how things go,” he said. “[But] next year there won’t need to be any motivation for me to go hard and do better in the playoffs.”