Last summer, when Larry Brown was actively flirting with the Knicks, the best argument for his becoming head coach wasn’t that he had just coached Detroit to a title and a Finals appearance (no one would confuse the Knicks’ talent base with that of the Pistons), but that he had coached a vastly overachieving Philadelphia team to the Finals in 2001. If he could win with what amounted to Allen Iverson and a bunch of journeymen, then imagine what he could do with the Knicks’ hodge-podge of talent.

Two months into his first regular season, the parallel to Philadelphia remains the most potent – and perhaps the only – reason for Knicks fans to keep the faith. Eight years ago today, the 76ers – who would play in the Eastern Conference semifinals the following season and the NBA Finals two seasons after that – were 7-19 after Brown’s first 26 games with the team.

For a Knicks squad mired at 7-19 after last night’s 109-101 loss to the Nets, that has to be encouraging history.

Brown took over the 76ers in the summer of 1997 after leaving a successful Indiana franchise that had appeared in the conference finals in 1994 and 1995. The Sixers, by contrast, were an absolute mess.

Following the trade of Charles Barkley to Phoenix following the 1992 season, Philadelphia had failed to top the 26-win mark for five straight seasons. When Brown arrived, the team was coming off a 22-60 campaign in 1996-97 and an 18-64 season in 1995-96. It wasn’t that the 76ers were underachieving – the roster basically amounted to “The Answer” and a bunch of question marks. Iverson was obviously an immensely promising young star, but Tim Thomas and Derrick Coleman were the second and third-best players on the squad Brown coached in his first season.

So it raised few eyebrows when the Sixers went 7-21 in their first two months under Brown. It looked like the same ol’ Sixers, particularly as Brown frantically juggled the starting lineup. However, there was a silver lining: After a few months, the team began to adapt to Brown’s schemes and improve defensively. Just as the Knicks have done this season, the 1998 Sixers gradually began to force turnovers at a much higher rate than they had under previous coach Johnny Davis. Those Sixers, led by Iverson and Aaron McKie, improved from 26th in the league to seventh in percentage of turnovers forced. So far, the current Knicks have moved from 16th in that category last season to fourth this season.

From their 7-21 start, the 1998 Sixers found almost level footing for the next two months, going 14-15 before a string of tough opponents in the season’s final weeks brought them to earth at 31-51. The following season, Philadelphia rode continued defensive improvements to a 28-22 record and its first playoff appearance in eight years. Two years later, the Sixers rode their 56-26 mark to the NBA Finals.

There are plenty of parallels here that should buoy the darkened hopes of Knicks fans. Year one of a Brown regime is essentially a rebuilding effort. Only a few people in the Knicks organization are using the word, but what else can be concluded about a team that hasn’t won a playoff series since 2000? In Philadelphia, Brown had a meager talent base to work with besides Iverson. By contrast, Brown has a wealth of young players to work with in New York.

There’s the bounty from this summer’s draft: rookies Channing Frye, Nate Robinson, and David Lee. In addition, guard Jamal Crawford, swingman Quentin Richardson, forwards Trevor Ariza and Qyntel Woods, and centers Jackie Butler and Eddy Curry are all under 25. Brown built the 76ers from limited upside journeymen despite a personnel department that had drafted reasonably well. Larry Hughes, Todd MacCulloch, and Samuel Dalembert came on board during Brown’s tenure in Philadelphia, but none of the three got much burn, reinforcing Brown’s reputation as a veteran’s coach – something he has dispelled in his first months coaching at the Garden. In short, the Knicks have far more upside than Brown’s 76ers, and games like last night’s loss give Brown less reason to lean on his vets. Frye was the only frontcourt player with a pulse for three quarters before Robinson led a 14-2 run midway in the fourth that made the final minutes interesting.

The Knicks also have their own backcourt scoring threat in point guard Stephon Marbury. At present, Marbury is averaging 18.1 points on 44.5% shooting and 6.3 assists per game. His role should be as a building block, not as trade bait; the carping about him not being a winner ignores the fact that he has yet to play on a team that played first-tier defense and had a strong post presence. Marbury’s teams haven’t won, but it’s mostly his teammates fault.

This isn’t to say that the Knicks can sit back and watch the mastercoach work his magic. The roster is still badly constructed, overstocked in the backcourt, and lacking at the small forward spot (unless Brown would like to let Richardson play the 3). Knick fans may cringe at the notion of another Isiah Thomas-orchestrated trade, but the Knicks have expiring contracts and an open position that needs talent. As long as it doesn’t involve taking on any more lengthy contracts, the Knicks should be ready to deal.

Similarly, in 1997,Brown’s 76ers added a shotblocker in Theo Ratliff, which enabled their perimeter defenders to tighten up even more on their opponents. If the Knicks were to add, say, Portland pivotman and free-agent-to-be Joel Przybilla, Brown could demand great intensity from his perimeter defenders.

More than anything else, Knicks fans need a sense of perspective. Entering this season, the team’s strengths were a base of young talent, an All-Star point guard, and a legendary coach. The young talent is starting to realize its potential, the point guard is playing well, and the coach is doing what he’s traditionally done when taking over a bad team: He’s aggressively sifted through players looking for the right combinations. When Brown cooked up his recipe in Philadelphia, it worked, but it took more than two months to get the team on the winning track. He deserves at least that much rope in this pressure cooker of a city.

mjohnson@nysun.com