Although the Knicks are mostly losing on the court this season, their owner, MSG chairman James Dolan, is actually on a winning streak. Dolan — the man who signed off of a series of horrific deals that have made the Knicks the most expensive mediocrity in the history of North American team sports — made sense in his comments to the press on Tuesday. When taken with his words and actions this past off-season, it’s not too wild-eyed to see a glimmer of hope amid this train wreck of an era for New York City pro basketball.

It’s certainly tempting to be raging mad at Dolan and not care what he says or does. Along with team president Isiah Thomas, Thomas’s predecessor Scott Layden, and to a lesser degree former coach Larry Brown, Dolan must shoulder the blame for getting the Knicks into this quagmire. However, the fastest route out is for Dolan — and perhaps Thomas — to stick to a program of building up young players with a clear eye toward having some cap flexibility when the contracts of Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis expire in the summer of ’09.

Occasionally you’ll hear it said that cap room is the most overrated aspect in basketball, but Phoenix and Orlando are two recent examples of teams clearing some cap room, spending it wisely, and moving from the lottery into the elite. The Knicks tried to spend their way out of cap hell and only drove themselves deeper into the quicksand.

Thus the sequence of Dolan’s remarks and actions is a big step toward righting that wrong. The most significant comment to come out of Tuesday’s press conference was that he would give Thomas a full year as head coach to determine whether the team was making progress. But it was what followed that made the biggest difference: Dolan added that it’s tremendously complicated to broom your front office and coaching staff during the season.

He’s right. If you’re looking for good NBA coaching and executive timber, then the pickins’ are pretty slim this time of year; most — if not all of — the best candidates are already busy working with some NBA team. Maybe, just maybe, Dolan has learned from his experience with Layden, whom he fired in December 2003 only to find fairly limited options for a replacement.

Another consideration is that should Dolan have to hire a replacement for Thomas (and it seems almost certain that he will, if not this summer, then next), the chairman’s chances of landing someone good will improve if he sticks to his word about giving Thomas a chance to right the ship. The Knicks’ current cap situation and roster are deterrents to any prospective NBA executive and having a chairman who acts impetuously might be the final nail in the “stay away” sign.

Dolan’s public statements and his plans to keep Thomas on a short leash this summer — which includes preventing Zeke from swapping the expiring contracts of Mo Taylor and Jalen Rose for some other expensive, failed veteran — suggest that there actually is a tenable plan in action at the Garden. Yes, it shouldn’t have come to this; most team owners would have heard the red alert back when Layden signed Allan Houston to his $100 million contract six years ago, but better late than never.

On Tuesday Dolan also went on to blame some of the Knicks’ troubles on ousted coach Larry Brown. Dolan was ridiculed for this, but Brown — his shabby dismissal notwithstanding — deserves substantial blame for failing to work at developing the Knicks’ younger players. Brown yo-yoed the playing time of Channing Frye and Nate Robinson capriciously, and often played David Lee out of position. Brown did hone the game of guard Jamal Crawford, but that’s the exception that proves the rule. Of course, this shouldn’t have surprised the Knicks. Brown has rarely been regarded as a one to mold young talent. In Detroit, he ran Mehmet Okur out of town and let Darko Milicic rot at the end of the bench. Pistons fans cherish their 2004 NBA championship banner but undoubtedly wish it came at less of a cost to future seasons.

Patience is one of the hardest things for a fan base to practice, particularly one that has watched its team turn from a proud icon of hardworking athletes into a circus marked by foolish moves and dumber commentary (anyone nostalgic for the Brown–Marbury war of words last season?).

The simple fact is there is no quick fix for the Knicks’ problems. The only real hope is to move steadily toward the summer of ’09 with a clear set of goals that involve developing Frye, Lee, and Robinson, as well as center Eddy Curry, forwards Jared Jeffries and Renaldo Balkman, and keeping swingman Quentin Richardson healthy.

The road ahead for Knicks fans is to either put faith in people who have betrayed that faith in the past, or hope for new executives who would likely seek quick fixes. It’s a lesser-of-two-evils situation, but Dolan’s remarks this week make the former evil a far more attractive option.

mjohnson@nysun.com