I know what you’re thinking. “More contracts! C’mon Isiah, didn’t you just say the Knicks weren’t going to do this stuff any more? Why are you trying to corner the market on overpaid, undersized power forwards?”

Relax. There’s actually a plan here … I think. Let me explain.

The Knicks made two deals at yesterday’s NBA trade deadline, sending Nazr Mohammed and Jamison Brewer to San Antonio for Malik Rose, and dealing Vin Baker and Moochie Norris to Houston for Maurice Taylor. Since Isiah sent out $13 million in contract obligations and got back $45 million, the first impression is that he again got suckered into taking on bad contracts.

But the key here is that the Knicks got two first-round picks out of the deal – a 2005 choice belonging to Phoenix and the Spurs pick in 2006. If the Knicks truly intend to get younger and for once try to rebuild the right way, stockpiling draft picks is a good way to do it. While these late draft picks aren’t going to yield a Shaq or a Duncan, players like Tony Parker, Andrei Kirilenko, and Josh Howard have emerged from the lower reaches of the draft in recent seasons.

In the absence of salary-cap space – an absence that is assured until at least the next presidential election – the only way the Knicks are going to get high-quality players to build around Stephon Marbury and Jamal Crawford is by being those players’ first employer. Thus, the first-round picks owed by Houston and San Antonio are crucial, essentially amounting to bribes for the deep-pocketed Knicks to take on the unwanted contracts of Rose and Taylor.

So the long-term plan is becoming a bit clearer in New York. And in a refreshing twist yesterday’s deals don’t constitute a total white flag on the season. Rose is about as good as Mohammed – his numbers this season are less impressive, but Mohammed’s offensive explosion in the first half has fluke written all over it. Taylor has been dreadful this year, but he’s an improvement on Baker Losing Brewer and Norris makes the back court Mischa Barton-thin, but let’s face it – there are 20 guys in the D-League better than both of them.

With Mohammed gone, Michael Sweetney gets a long-overdue promotion to the starting lineup. The 6-foot-7-inch Rose and Jerome Williams will become the primary frontcourt backups, and the Knicks can get on with the business of trying to resuscitate the season The odds are long, of course, but they aren’t any longer than they were 24 hours ago.

In the longer term, the rebuilding project has a few more steps left. Yes, the Knicks will have some expiring contracts next season (Tim Thomas and Penny Hardaway) that could enable them to trade for another piece but they’re only likely to get what another team is trying to unload. Normally, that means an Antoine Walker/Jalen Rose legend in-his-own-mind type rather than a real star.

More likely, either Hardaway or Tim Thomas will be packaged with Kurt Thomas this summer in an effort to fetch a more valuable commodity – perhaps one like Port land’s Darius Miles. Kurt Thomas is 33 and has three years left on his contract, making him much more useful to a veteran team trying to win now than a rebuilding one like the Knicks A deal with him almost happened sooner – my sources tell me the Knicks talked seriously with San Antonio about him before the Spurs made the move for Mohammed.

Dealing Hardaway and/or the Thomases would finally take the Knicks where they’ve needed to be for nearly a decade. They’d have a roster heavier on 20-somethings than has-beens, a bunch of draft picks, and a management that’s no longer kidding itself about becoming a contender overnight. It’s too bad it took so long, but better late than never.

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Meanwhile, yesterday’s trade deadline left us with a total of 11 deals, including several other head-scratching moves to ponder:

BARON DAVIS The Warriors got Davis from the Hornets for Speedy Claxton and Dale Davis. Davis has a maximum contract and is injury prone, but Claxton is just as injury-prone, and Davis is way, way, way better. The Hornets are trying to rebuild, but Davis is just 25, so dumping him now is puzzling. Maybe that explains why they’re 11-43.The other Davis, Dale, has an expiring contract, so this deal and the Jamal Mashburn trade get the Hornets under the cap this summer. But that only matters if they can convince somebody to take their money.

ANTOINE WALKER In possibly the strangest deal I’ve ever seen, the Celtics traded Gary Payton to the Hawks for Walker. Both players are free agents this summer, so there are no cap implications. The Celtics simply decided they’d rather have Walker for the rest of the season than Payton. Apparently, it didn’t occur to them that somebody has to bring the ball up court. Meanwhile, the Hawks get a first-round pick out of the trade, making it a no-brainer for them.

CHRIS WEBBER It’s mystifying that the Kings would deal Webber to Philadelphia for three mediocrities – Kenny Thomas, Corliss Williamson, and Brian Skinner – in a deal with no cap implications. But remember two things. First, the Kings’ bench is so awful right now that having three bodies instead of one is actually quite helpful for them.

Second, Peja Stojakovic plays so much better when Webber isn’t hiding the ball from him that it immediately offsets the difference between Webber and Thomas, who will replace him in the rotation. But that doesn’t change the equation for Philly. If Webber stays healthy, they’ll win the Atlantic, especially now that Antoine Walker is back in Boston.

MIKE JAMES This might be the most underrated trade of the deadline deals. I like James a lot, and the Rockets got him dirt-cheap from Milwaukee, giving up only splinter-puller Reece Gaines and two-second round picks. James fills a glaring need at point guard – the 92-year-old Rod Strickland wasn’t cutting the mustard – and his shooting should help keep defenses from sagging on Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming.

RODNEY WHITE Has Golden State been taken over by an intelligent alien life form? This was the second straight solid trade by the sad-sack Warriors, who sent Eduardo Najera and a first-round pick (not their own) to Denver for 2002 draft bust Nikoloz Tskitishvili and White. This deal was mainly made to dump Najera’s salary, but keep an eye on White – he can score in bunches and I wouldn’t be surprised if he had stolen Mike Dunleavy’s small forward job by this time next season.

KEITH VAN HORN League rules stipulate that Van Horn must be traded at the deadline each year, so Milwaukee complied by sending him to Dallas for Alan Henderson and Calvin Booth. The move, along with the James trade, was a salary dump by the Bucks so they could re-sign Michael Redd this summer and still stay under budget. Meanwhile, watch out for Dallas. Backup power forward had been a weakness all year, but with Van Horn, it should become a strength.

RODNEY ROGERS Van Horn wasn’t the only former Net forward to change addresses yesterday, with the Hornets sending Rogers and Jamal Mashburn to Philadelphia for Glenn Robinson. Mashburn’s career is over and Robinson is unlikely to suit up for New Orleans. However, Rogers may provide some marginally useful minutes off the bench for his former coach in Boston, Jim O’Brien, especially since the Sixers traded three players to get Webber. The benefit for New Orleans is it gets them out of paying Mashburn next year.

JIRI WELSCH Cleveland acquired Welsch from Boston for a first-round draft choice in 2007, which should be a very late pick unless a bus hits LeBron James. I like this deal for the Cavs because Welsch is exactly what they need – a wing player who can hit from outside and take some off the ball handling load off LeBron James. Don’t be surprised if he’s starting ahead of Ira Newble by the time the playoffs roll around.

DEADLINE DEALING

The NBA trade deadline came and went yesterday with a total of 11 deals involving 35 players being agreed to in the final 24 hours before the cutoff. Here’s a look at the players involved.

TO PHILADELPHIA
Rodney Rogers, F Jamal Mashburn, F

TO SACRAMENTO
Corliss Williamson, F Brian Skinner, F Kenny Thomas, F

TO SAN ANTONIO
Nazr Mohammed, C Jamison Brewer, G

TO GOLDEN STATE
Baron Davis, G

TO DALLAS
Keith Van Horn, F

TO SAN ANTONIO
Moochie Norris, G Vin Baker, F

TO BOSTON
Antoine Walker, F

TO CLEVELAND
Jiri Welsch, G

TO HOUSTON
Mike James, G Zendon Hamilton,

TO GOLDEN STATE
Nicoloz Tskitishvili, F Rodney White, F

TO MIAMI
Steve Smith, G

TO NEW ORLEANS
Glenn Robinson, F

TO PHILADELPHIA
Chris Webber, F Matt Barnes, F Michael Bradley, F

TO NEW YORK
Malik Rose, F 2 first-round picks

TO NEW ORLEANS
Speedy Claxton, G Dale Davis, F

TO MILWAUKEE
Calvin Booth, C Alan Henderson, F

TO NEW YORK
Maurice Taylor, F Second-round pick

TO ATLANTA
Gary Payton, G Michael Stewart Tom Gugliotta, F First-round pick

TO BOSTON
First-round pick

TO MILWAUKEE
Reece Gaines, G 2 second-rd. picks

TO DENVER
Eduardo Najera, F Luis Flores, G First-round pick

TO CHARLOTTE
Malik Allen, F