James Dolan must be a greater believer in free expression than even Marv Albert understood — the Knicks owner seems powerless to do anything about his point guard and $10 million a year head coach taking cheap shots at each in the paper, almost on a daily basis. The latest hostility is captured by the New York Daily News’ Frank Isola.

“I went into this year trying to do something, to put myself in a situation where we can win, okay?” Marbury said on Saturday. “To help the team win games. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. So, what do I do now, as far as the way I play? I go back to playing like Stephon Marbury, aka Starbury. I haven’t been Starbury this year. I’ve been some other dude this year.”

You would be willing to cut Marbury some slack if he were still a senior at Lincoln High School. The fact that a 29-year-old man refers to himself in the third person as “Starbury” and believes that he’s had a stellar career up until Brown arrived goes beyond ludicrous.

Is there no one in Marbury’s circle of enablers to tell him how crazy he sounds?

Following a win over Milwaukee last week, Marbury said: “We’re still trying to figure out what we’re supposed to do on the basketball court.”

Those comments came one day after Marbury elected to argue a non-foul call rather than play defense against Chicago’s Ben Gordon. While Marbury protested, Gordon hit the go-ahead three-pointer.

On Saturday, Marbury complimented Charlotte rookie point guard Raymond Felton, saying, “He plays with so much confidence. (Bobcats coach Bernie) Bickerstaff, he does a great job of instilling that in his players. He allows players a lot of freedom, as you can see.”

Ouch. Brown’s most stinging comment about Marbury came when he said in December, “We don’t have a head out there.” Lately, he throws jabs at Marbury by praising Jalen Rose and Steve Francis as “ball movers.”

Peter Vescey, equally mindful of the mess at MSG, gets all absurdist on us in his Sunday’s rundown of NBA coaches on the hot seat.

What if Larry Brown’s bladder problem compels him to surrender the sidelines?

What if Isiah Thomas losses his sexual harassment suit? Doesn’t the league have a one-time amnesty for such cases or is that something else?

What if John Calipari switches from Memphis to a Big East school in the Metropolitan area?

Then again, what if Brown hires his friend as his first assistant?

What if Bernard King doesn’t recover from knee surgery and the Knicks can’t turn things around?