Earlier this week, a good friend dropped me a line about hoops: “The thought of the Knicks hiring [Mike] D’Antoni spreads through the gut like a good bourbon.”

For a second, I thought that my friend didn’t like whiskey. Then I realized that he is a Knicks fan who has suffered through the three-year circus of Larry Brown and Isiah Thomas. The thought of rehiring Don Chaney might spread through the gut like a good bourbon, too.

And that’s just as well: Neither hiring is imminent by the Knicks, but D’Antoni, currently the coach of the Phoenix Suns, would be an especially bad fit. He likes his teams to be comprised of athletes. But the Knicks roster is laden with walk-it-up-the-court types such as Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph. Due to the size and length of their contracts, they are two of the most untradeable players in the NBA. The Knicks have made this kind of mistake before — hiring a coach whose preferred strategy is a poor fit for the talent already on board — and it resulted in the 23-59 season under Brown three seasons ago. D’Antoni was the coach who ran point guard Stephon Marbury out of town in Phoenix, and he might relish the chance to do it again. But in all other regards, my friend will have to resort to good bourbon for the feeling of it.

The Knicks should be hot pursuit of Avery Johnson, an actual casualty of the Western Conference’s first round of the playoffs. Johnson, the former coach of the Dallas Mavericks, is a defense-first man. While it’s hard to imagine Curry and Randolph diving after loose balls, extending themselves in the attempt to block shots, and playing rugged man-to-man defense, there’s little doubt that Johnson would demand it from them, and he might limit their playing time unless they show consistent enthusiasm for defense. In Dallas, Johnson got noted defensive slackers, such as guard Jason Terry and forward Jerry Stackhouse, to focus on their defense. So it’s possible that he could get more intensity out of Curry and Randolph. I can’t see the Knicks making the playoffs next season, but if they play good defense, they will at least win the city back.

It seems to me that the Knicks are waiting for a chance to interview Tom Thibodeau, the Boston Celtics’ assistant coach who was the mastermind behind the defensive schemes that helped Boston win 66 games and lead the league in Defensive Efficiency (points allowed per 100 possessions). Thibodeau has interviewed for other vacancies — most recently the Sacramento job last summer — and he has experience in New York, where he was Jeff Van Gundy’s lead assistant in the late 1990s.

While former Knicks point guard and television commentator Mark Jackson is still regarded as the front-runner for the job, if new team president Donnie Walsh (and still, a month later, just typing those words makes me pause and smile) was finished with his search, then he’d hire someone. The sooner a coach is on board, the more input he will have in how the Knicks use their first-round pick and how they’ll use draft night to make trades that will reshape the roster. I think Walsh is hoping that the Celtics make quick work of their conference semifinal series against the Cavaliers. Boston team president Danny Ainge has said that he’ll allow Thibodeau to interview during layoffs between series.

At this point, the annual NBA coach’s bazaar has turned into a buyer’s market. With the Mavericks expected to name Rick Carlisle as their new coach later this week, there are only three openings: the Knicks, the Bulls, and (presumably) the Suns. D’Antoni’s probably hammering out details in Chicago, where he seems like a good — though far from perfect — fit as the next coach.

There are many positives in Chicago for D’Antoni. The Bulls are a team that plays fast — they were 11th in the league in Pace Factor (possessions per game). The Chicago big guns, Tyrus Thomas, Joakim Noah, and Drew Gooden, all run the floor well and are excellent athletes. The present Bulls’ offense is perimeter-oriented and ineffective. The Bulls were 26th in Offensive Efficiency (points scored per 100 possessions) this season, but even last year, when the team won 49 games, they finished 21st. D’Antoni, an offensive mastermind, will have an immediate impact in Chicago.

Many observers have pointed out that the Bulls are a far better defensive team than D’Antoni coached in Phoenix, as if that’s a problem. The Suns have played good defense at times during D’Antoni’s tenure. In the 2005-06 season, the Suns were in the top 10 in Defensive Efficiency during the first half of the season. Then Kurt Thomas, who was their starting center that season, suffered a leg injury, and their defense fell apart. To my knowledge, no coach is opposed to their team playing solid defense.

The bigger conflict will occur in that the Bulls are an exceptionally young team. The average age of the current roster is 24.2. By contrast, last year’s Suns roster had an average age of 29.6. D’Antoni will have to acclimate to younger set of players. He may also have to adjust to a larger rotation. D’Antoni has typically gone with one of the shortest rotations in the NBA, with only eight, and sometimes seven, players receiving significant burn. Although it lacks superstar talent such as Amare Stoudemire and Steve Nash, the Bulls’ roster is far deeper than the Suns. These should be feasible adjustments for D’Antoni. As long as Chicago is willing to pony up the dough for him, D’Antoni should be their coach by the end of the week. And that news should warm the gut of Bulls fans everywhere like a good bourbon.

mjohnson@nysun.com