Top 5 Knicks storylines of 2013

1. Around the block

The mammoth rejection on Carmelo Anthony by 7-foot-2 Pacers center Roy Hibbert was a microcosm of the Knicks’ decline – in the 2013 playoffs and for the future. Midway through the fourth quarter of Game 6 of the second-round series at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Anthony drove the right baseline and rose for a dunk.

Hibbert’s outstretched hand met the ball straight on, squashing the play and killing all of the Knicks’ momentum. The Pacers responded with a furious 9-0 run and closed out the Knicks that night of May 18. The turning point of the series also marked the rebirth of the Pacers (owners of a league-best 23-5 record in 2013-14) and slow demise of the Knicks. The block also underscored Anthony’s fourth-quarter woes in the three playoff games in Indianapolis.

2. The J.R. Smith chronicles

The fall of the Knicks has coincided with the fall of J.R. Smith, who easily was the team’s second-best player in the 2012-13 season. That is, until May, when he elbowed Jason Terry late in a Game 3 blowout of the Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. The elbow commenced a series of ignominious events: Smith earned a suspension for Game 4 and it cost the Knicks a sweep, though they hung on to win the series in six games. That gave them just one day’s rest before the second round, and the Pacers stole Game 1 at the Garden (and with it, home-court advantage).

Smith never recovered from the suspension and wound up shooting 29 percent the rest of the playoffs while his knee soreness worsened. Smith re-signed with the Knicks on a four-year contract, but put off knee surgery until mid-July, costing him training camp. To boot, he was suspended for the first five games of the season for failing three marijuana tests. He still hasn’t found last season’s form.

3. An unexpected ax

There’s nothing to start a rallying cry for the 2013-14 season like firing the general manager who built the roster in late September, just four days before training camp. Dolan outdid himself by firing Glen Grunwald and rehiring former Garden sports president Steve Mills, who once enlisted Isiah Thomas. The bad karma from the move has not dissipated. Dolan later explained he is “reprocessing’’ the franchise, moving more toward an analytics-based approach, and felt Grunwald was too old-school.

4. Carmelo Anthony’s wandering eye

Anthony’s disappointment over the playoff exit led him to pine for the Knicks to add a secondary scorer as he entered the probable final season on his current contract if he opts out, as expected, following 2013-14. Eventually the Knicks traded for underachieving 7-footer Andrea Bargnani, the former No. 1 pick who also happens to be represented by Anthony’s agent, Leon Rose of CAA.

But that did not stop Anthony from being linked to the Lakers this summer. The fear he will bolt after the season, leaving $30 million on the table, was heightened when he said he planned on becoming a free agent, indicating it was something he wanted to explore for the first time. The interview, with the New York Observer, wasn’t published until preseason and created a distraction. Anthony’s mood swings have been severe, and he has used doom-and-gloom phrases to describe the Knicks’ losing as the year winds down.

5. Dolan breaks his silence

In his first 1-on-1 sports interview in seven years, Dolan sat down with Post columnist Mike Vaccaro in his Garden suite last month. The eccentric owner gave a vote of confidence to coach Mike Woodson (since rescinded), said he’s more patient than Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, claimed he never would rehire Thomas because he wouldn’t get a “fair shake’’ and said he felt the Knicks were a title contender and better equipped for the playoffs than last season’s team. The Knicks lost nine straight games around the time of the sitdown, and Dolan hasn’t been heard from since – nor has Mills.