Upset that the Knicks are 2–3 so far? Don’t sweat it — everyone else has the same record.

Welcome to the parity fest, everyone. With a week of the season in the books, the standings look pretty much upside down. The Hawks and Hornets, who combined to win just 31 games two seasons ago, have the best records in the East and West, respectively. Preseason doormat picks like the Blazers and Sixers sit comfortably on the good side of .500, while last year’s final four teams – the Mavs, Suns, Heat, and Pistons – are a combined 5–13.

Set against the league-wide trend, then, the Knicks’ up-and-down start to the year is hardly surprising — two pulse-racing, nail-biting road wins bracketing three fairly disappointing defeats. Overall, this hasn’t been an encouraging start — they could just as easily be 0-5 right now — but it’s been that kind of week all over the league.

Instead, let’s take a step back and try to see some of the larger trends. The Knicks’ season thus far can basically be boiled down into two giant positives and two negatives that have been equally strong. The result, then, is a team that hasn’t looked much better than it did a year ago.

Let’s take a closer look:

Good news: Q’s back is back. Quentin Richardson couldn’t make a shot last year, but even so you could tell he was one of the few Knick players Larry Brown genuinely liked having on his team. That’s because he takes defense seriously and doesn’t kill the shot clock by dribbling for 23 seconds. You would think most players would operate that way, but the Knicks under Isiah Thomas have had a gift for acquiring those who don’t.

At any rate, Richardson’s back was killing him last year, so he was unable to reward Brown’s confidence with production. Richardson’s Player Efficiency Rating (PER, my per-minute rating of a player’s statistical effectiveness) was among the worst at his position because he had trouble finding the range on his normally deadly shot.

The best news for the Knicks in the new campaign, then, is that Richardson looks completely healthy. He’s been the team’s best player in the early going, with a team-leading 19.4 points a game and stellar secondary stats (54.2% shooting, 7.2 boards a game) to go with it. He’s hitting his 3-pointers, but also showing a diversity that he couldn’t a year ago by overpowering opponents near the basket with his strength and leaping.

Bad news: Frye looks fried. One reason I thought the Knicks could stay on the fringes of the playoff race was that Channing Frye seemed prime for a second-year breakout. He had the best PER on the Knicks as a rookie last year and was fantastic in the first half, especially before Larry Brown’s daily lineup mystery seemed to get in his head.

Well, it appears my projection was overly optimistic. Actually, that’s putting it kindly — Frye has been the Knicks’ worst player, by far, in the first five contests. He’s shooting 20.9% from the field, including a miss on a wide-open dunk in Atlanta and hasn’t attempted a single free throw. His average of 6.5 points per 40 minutes is in Jason Collins territory, but at least Collins plays some D. Frye has been a sieve at that end too.

At this point, I’m struggling to figure out what the problem is. Frye hurt his knee at the end of last year and may still be affected somehow, or maybe Brown just screwed with his head so badly that he’s damaged goods. Whatever the cause, he’s been disastrously bad, and it seems only a matter of time before rebound machine David Lee takes his job.

Good news: Nate’s been great. The idea here was that the Knicks would spread the floor, allowing Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis to use their quickness to blow past defenders and create opportunities for everyone else. By and large, this hasn’t happened — either they end up dribbling around too much at the top of the key, or they can’t quite beat the defender, or they hoist a long jumper.

But Robinson, on the other hand, has executed this strategy perfectly. He nearly led a comeback against the Hawks simply by making quick drives to the basket from the top of the key for layups. The 5-foot-9 sparkplug has been outstanding in the other games as well, averaging 22.8 points per 40 minutes and shooting a sizzling 52.0% from the field.

In fact, this is the silver lining to Steve Francis’s ankle sprain — it opens up more burn for Robinson without angering the Marbury-Francis-Crawford triumvirate. He’s been so good that he needs to play more, but that was going to be tough with the crowd in the Knicks’ backcourt. If Robinson keeps it up, though, there’s going to be quite a debate once Francis returns. One wonders if one of the Knicks’ highest-paid players will end up relegated to spot duty as a fourth guard.

Bad news: Starbury’s stunk. Malik Rose alluded to the harsh Garden crowd getting into Marbury’s head, but that doesn’t explain his performance in the three road games — where he’s been nearly as bad. Overall, Marbury is shooting 34.0% from the field and averaging just 13.3 points per 40 minutes.

The troubling thought for Knicks fans is this: What if Marbury’s decline last year wasn’t because of Larry Brown? What if he’s really just in decline? The dip in Marbury’s numbers the past two years has been absolutely mystifying. The rules were rejigged to give quick guards a huge advantage; every other player of this type has seen his numbers explode the past two seasons. But Marbury’s are going steadily downhill, even though at 29 we shouldn’t be expecting severe decline.

Some have pointed to Marbury’s summer promotional tour for his $15 sneaker as an issue. Others have blamed the sneaks themselves. Whatever the cause, he’s looked a step slower from my viewpoint, which is vital for a guard who depends so much on his penetration skills.

It’s also vital for the Knicks. Regardless of your thoughts on Marbury, there’s no doubt that he’s been the Knicks’ most indispensable player the past two years. It was his shoulder injury last year that sent the team into a tailspin, and it was his play the year before that prevented a deeply flawed team from meeting a similar fate. If Starbury turns out to be Ordinarybury this year, one shudders to think how the Knicks will fare as a result.

jhollinger@nysun.com