Should the Knicks’ 3rd consecutive win against fair-to-quality opposition be considered a too little/too late turnaround, or more likely, a weird abberation? The New York Daily News’ Mitch Lawrence would seem to opt for the latter, opining “the Knicks are at a place in their season where they need to lose.”

As far as anyone can tell, Thomas has not agreed to ship this year’s first-round pick to the Bulls after sending them the last two in the Eddy Curry trade. So why not maintain their overall losing ways – they’re on pace to finish with 26 wins – and get a top player out of the draft?

Thomas talks about this being a young team, but he really doesn’t have a young star he can build around. The best of his drafts still playing here, David Lee, Nate Robinson and Renaldo Balkman, are role players. If Thomas is going to leave an imprint on the Knicks, which he says is his intention, then the best thing he can do is to parlay a train-wreck season into a top talent.

So maybe, if the Knicks lose enough, and that shouldn’t be a problem, even if Stephon Marbury misses the rest of the season, Thomas can find a future star this June in Kansas State’s Michael Beasley, Memphis’ Derrick Rose or Southern Cal’s O.J. Mayo (above).

Based on Marbury’s play prior to declaring he needs ankle surgery, I’m pretty confident these Knicks are capable of dropping 20 in a row, with or without him.