In a word… yes. But the Knicks probably aren’t the right fit for Mike D’Antoni.

This may not make much sense, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Given the right personnel, D’Antoni’s brand of up-tempo basketball can win over any group of fans, even the rough and tumble fans in New York. But a quick look at the Knicks’ roster makes me wonder just how quickly D’Antoni can successfully implement that high-octane attack.

He’ll first need to find a quick, pass-first point guard to push the tempo and hit the open man. Last season, the Knicks had Stephon Marbury, Nate Robinson and Jamal Crawford running the point. If reined in, Marbury probably has the skills to run D’Antoni’s system, but there is just too much history there for him to succeed. Robinson and Crawford are both scoring point guards, and while they have the offensive ability to thrive at the off guard position, they don’t have the court vision to run the point like Steve Nash does in Phoenix. So what’s the solution? Barring the unlikely event that they can land Derrick Rose in the draft, the Knicks need to jettison Marbury as quickly as they can and do whatever it takes to acquire T.J. Ford from Toronto. Ford is expendable there because the Raptors will want to re-sign Jose Calderon. If that means that the Knicks have to give up Robinson, so be it.

Next, he’ll need to surround Ford (or whomever he chooses to run the show) with rangy, athletic shooters. Crawford, Quentin Richardson (who played for D’Antoni in Phoenix) and Robinson (if he’s still around) should fit, while Wilson Chandler has also shown some ability in limited minutes.

Finally, he needs big men who can rebound, run the floor and hit an open jumper. Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph certainly don’t fit that mold, but David Lee does. Renaldo Balkman looks like a gritty, do-the-little-things kind of guy that D’Antoni will want to keep around.

It’s not going to be easy, but with a starting lineup of Ford, Crawford, Richardson, Lee and a to-be-determined athletic power forward-type that can run the floor and rebound (Francisco Elson and Kurt Thomas will be free agents this summer), along with a fresh outlook on the game that stresses always making the extra pass, will combine to make the Knicks competitive in their first year under D’Antoni.

It’s true that D’Antoni would probably have a much easier time getting the Bulls, with their core of good, young players, back to the playoffs, but there’s something that has to be attractive about being the guy to bring good basketball back to New York. If the team is successful in trading away Curry and Randolph, they should have the cap room to sign a big name free agent in the summer of 2010. The big question is – will D’Antoni last that long?