BOSTON — The Knicks’ new-look starting five is a work in progress, as expected. In one of the offseason’s more drastic roster overhauls, New York sent five first-round picks to Brooklyn for Mikal Bridges and swung a blockbuster trade with Minnesota for Karl-Anthony Towns just three days before training camp. Growing pains were inevitable for the new unit of Towns, Bridges, Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, and Josh Hart. While promising signs emerged in preseason, hours before opening-night tip-off against the Celtics, the Knicks’ captain acknowledges there’s still a long road ahead. “I think we’re better than we were day one,” Brunson said after morning shootaround at TD Garden on Tuesday. “Yes, we have the potential to do great things, but we have a long way to go and we can’t be complacent. We can’t listen to anything that people say, how good we think we are or whatever. That means nothing to us. We’ve gotta continue to work.” Brunson, Hart, and Anunoby return to the starting lineup from last season’s playoff team, while Towns and Bridges are learning to fit into their new roles as the second and third offensive options. Towns, in particular, faces the task of replacing Randle’s production in the frontcourt. Randle averaged about 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in his final two seasons in New York. “I think his skill set speaks for itself. I think when you look at what he’s done over a long period of time in the league, he’s an elite shooting big, which allows you to play five-out, a very good pick and roll player, but I think he also has the ability to put it on the floor, run the floor, play back to the basket, face up, put bigs at a big disadvantage,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said after practice at the team’s Tarrytown training facility on Monday. “And we can play off that. Oftentimes, he’s passing gets overlooked. And then defensively, the rebounding and then to get back to the rim protection — we think he can do that.” In four preseason games, Towns averaged 18.3 points and 11 rebounds while struggling from three, shooting just 4-of-23. He expects his shooting to normalize back to his career 39.8% from beyond the arc. Bridges also struggled, shooting 2-of-19 from deep during the preseason, but remains confident. Despite his uncharacteristic 0-for-10 outing against the Wizards, Bridges is working to regain his form, reminding everyone of his career 37.5% shooting from deep. The Knicks aren’t panicking. They paid a premium to build around Towns and Bridges, and are committed to their new offensive identity. The goal is to develop chemistry over the course of the season. “[The chemistry is] good. It’s like everything happened so fast. When everything happened and straight to training camp,” said Bridges. “Everybody is pretty close. All the rookies, everybody, we’re all close. Just on the court, we need reps. We’ve gotten better since the first day of training camp till now, and the biggest thing is to continue to get better every single day. We want to be the best team we can be when it’s all said and done. So it’s going to be day by day.” The Knicks know they need time and reps to reach their potential. The road to contention will be paved through the painstaking process of building trust and familiarity — one game at a time.