If there’s not a Knicks-Nets rivalry on the court this season after what happened this summer, then when exactly?

Kyrie Irving ratcheted it up again at a promotional event Thursday when he acknowledged Kevin Durant’s absence and added, “But for the time being, we’re going to take over the whole city. It’s about us.’’

Shots fired. Are the Knicks ready to compete with the big, bad Nets, who were a whopping 42-40 last season? One more loss was all that separated the Nets from the definition of mediocre, but the league-wide belief is they are on a terrific trajectory to the top even with Durant’s superstar future still an uncertainty.

The Nets have gone from underrated to overrated very quickly around these parts and Irving is stoking the fires.

The Timberwolves are one of the bottom teams in the Western Conference but were good enough to steal one on Atlantic Avenue on opening night Wednesday – even in a game in which Irving woke up the echoes of his Cleveland days with 50 points.

The Nets beat up the Knicks over the summer, but the first on-court test is Friday at Barclays Center, where 10,000 Kyrie Irving jerseys were being handed out in an attempt to ensure the Nets fans outnumber the Knicks ones.

Jalen Rose is a friend of Knicks GM Scott Perry from their University of Michigan days, it is noted. But Rose raised the scenario in August the Knicks may not be too far behind a Nets team minus Durant back.

“On paper, while I love (Caris) LeVert, (Spencer) Dinwiddie and those guys playing with Kyrie and having (Jarrett) Allen down low, they have what it takes to be a playoff team,” Rose told The Post. “But without KD, their record will probably hover around what it was last year. On paper, if everyone plays to their expectations, I don’t feel the Knicks’ record should be far off that and almost be as good as theirs.”

Rose will look either like a prophet or as bad as he did when claiming the day before the Kawhi Leonard free-agency decision that the superstar forward was “99%’’ headed back to Toronto.

The Knicks may indeed stumble to a 20-to-25-win season and cost David Fizdale his job. But maybe there is something on this rebuilt roster that can match up well with the Nets, especially on the front line. Maybe the Knicks get to March in the thick of a playoff race.

July was an orange-and-blue embarrassment, and it seems no coincidence Perry and president Steve Mills stayed mum for more than three months and have kept their distance from the writers in preseason.

As one fan Twitter rant read this morning, the Knicks traded their best draft pick since Patrick Ewing (Kristaps Porzingis) to chase two players who signed in Brooklyn. Point guard Dennis Smith Jr., the key player piece in the trade to go alongside their cap space, has been either hurt or dreadful since preseason began.

So Friday in Brooklyn, the Knicks have their first shot to change the “Brooklyn-is-best” narrative.

“You’ve got people always saying the Knicks and the Nets, of course they got two superstars,” Kevin Knox said. “That’s just fuel to the fire for us. Like Fiz told us all in a group message, ‘Put your head down and just go out and play hard for one another.’ That’s kind of been our motto this whole summer. Fiz just basically has been feeding us all motivational stuff: ‘Just keep your head down, no media, social media, Instagram, none of that. Go out there and play for one another.’”

In the season opener Wednesday in San Antonio, the Knicks showed potential, leading the Spurs by six points with 8:20 to go without starting center Mitchell Robinson before folding. It was something to build on with a slew of good signs, and Robinson is back Friday night in Brooklyn.

If RJ Barrett continues to play like a Rookie of the Year candidate, Knox has a sophomore surge, Julius Randle and Marcus Morris are scoring forces while battling on defense like they were protecting the Alamo and they get competent two-way play at point guard from Elfrid Payton and Frank Ntilikina, the Knicks certainly won’t be an embarrassment again this year.

The Knicks have mostly stored away the rhetoric and let Irving and Dinwiddie do the bragging. The Knicks will try to do their talking on the same Barclays court on which the Timberwolves just won.

Durant isn’t playing and July doesn’t matter Friday night.

For more on the Knicks, listen to this episode of the NY Post podcast, “Big Apple Buckets”: