A little over a year ago, when the Knicks were in the process of hiring Lenny Wilkens, most observers thought the job would go to Mike Fratello, the veteran coach and TV commentator best known as the Czar of the Telestrator. For a variety of reasons the two sides couldn’t agree on a deal, and Wilkens got the job.

A year later, Wilkens has already departed Madison Square Garden following a remarkably uninspired performance. Fratello, meanwhile, signed on to coach the Mempis Grizzlies after Hubie Brown’s retirement in November, and his team is looking up in the tough Western Conference. The Griz have played so well since Fratello arrived, in fact, that the Knicks’ brass should be wondering about the road not taken.

It’s easy to downplay what Fratello has accomplished in Memphis. The team won 50 games last season and made the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Still, they were a mess when Fratello arrived. Brown, last year’s NBA Coach of the Year, resigned a few weeks into the season, citing health reasons. Interim coach Lionel Hollins took over to no avail, and the Grizzlies stood at just 5-11 after 16 games.

In the game before Fratello took the reigns, the Knicks beat Memphis 90-82. Less than a week later, the Grizzlies came back to down Wilkens and Co. 96-88. It was an early indicator that Fratello wasn’t wasting time in restoring the Grizzlies’ status as one of the NBA’s most promising young teams. Memphis has gone 19-8 under the Czar and they’ve won 11 of their last 13 games. Most of that improvement has come about as a result of a newfound commitment to defense.

Fratello, like most intense, teaching coaches, is defense oriented. Under his watch, the Griz have allowed a suffocating 87.8 points per game, nearly nine points fewer than they conceded under Hollins and Brown earlier in the year. According to the team stat pages at www.knickerblogger.net, the Griz are now fifth in Defensive Efficiency at 99 points per 100 possessions; last season, they ranked 11th, and that was without a month-long slump.

The improvement is especially notable because no one on the Grizzlies’ roster is likely to make the All-Defensive team – their best defender, Earl Watson, doesn’t even start. It’s as good an example as you’ll find that solid defense begins with hustle and hard work – something that the Knicks and interim coach Herb Williams should consider. The Grizzlies, like the Knicks, lack stellar on-ball interior defenders, but more than make up for it by playing strong perimeter defense and denying easy passing lanes to star inside players.

Memphis’s 110-94 victory over Utah on Saturday illustrated these strengths. After rushing out to an early lead, the Grizzlies consistently denied open looks to Utah wingers Gordan Giricek and Matt Harpring and prevented forward Andrei Kirilenko from receiving the ball in the low post, where he’d likely have an advantage over Pau Gasol. Jazz point guard Keith McLeod and backup center Mehmet Okur were only able to keep the game competitive by hitting several long, contested jumpers late in the shot clock.

Every offensive threat was met by sound, aggressive defense. Every screen was switched and most were trapped. It was clear that Memphis arrived at the Delta Center with a defensive game plan and a single-minded commitment to its execution.

Also of note was the logic of the Memphis offense. In Fratello’s previous coaching gig with Cleveland in the mid-90s, he was known to favor the slowest tempo in the league. His 1994-95 squad made the playoffs despite scoring a league-worst 87.6 points per game.

The 2004-05 Grizzlies, however, run an efficient and productive offense. On Saturday night, Gasol scored inside early and often, forcing the Jazz to double-team down low. That left openings on the perimeter for Shane Battier, who nailed three straight from behind the arc in the first period.

In the second half, when the Jazz focused their defense on the perimeter, the Griz pounded the ball inside to Gasol, who shot a solid 7-of-12 from the floor for 23 points. By the final buzzer, Memphis had amassed 110 points on only 94 possessions, a rate that well exceeds the average of even the explosive Phoenix Suns.

It’s teams like Phoenix and the handful of Western Conference powerhouses that present the biggest obstacle for the young Grizzlies. As well as they’ve been playing, the Griz are still tied for seventh in the Western Conference playoff race, just behind the Lakers. Though they’re more than capable of overtaking Kobe and the Gang, the Grizzlies are still a long way from the Dallas-Sacramento pairing sitting at nos. 4 and 5.

This will likely leave Memphis in a tough first-round matchup with the Suns, Sonics, or even a rematch with the Spurs. The Grizzlies might notch their first postseason win, but unless they consistently play with the offensive prowess they showed on Saturday, they’re unlikely to upset the higher seed.

Fratello has tranformed Memphis into a superb defensive team, but the offense will have to rise to the upper echelon before the Griz can go deep into the playoffs. Gasol, their best offensive player, will also have to make a quick and complete recovery from a foot injury that could sideline him until mid-February.

If nothing else, the Grizzlies’ success should be a wakeup call for the MSG honchos. The Knicks’ roster bears a lot of similarities to that of the Griz, but where Memphis commits to tough defense, the Knicks appear startlingly indifferent when the other team has the ball. If the Knicks could muster even a fraction of the Grizzlies’ defensive intensity, it would probably be enough to reach the second round of the playoffs in the feeble Eastern Conference.

It would help if Isiah Thomas stopped trying to grab headlines by flirting with Hall of Fame-bound coaches like Phil Jackson and Larry Brown and simply hired someone who demands tough defense and solid, fundamental basketball. Someone like Mike Fratello.