“The whole is more than the sum of its parts.”

You’re familiar with that popular catch phrase, right? Commentators normally apply it to teams like this season’s Pistons or the recent New England Patriots, who steamroll opponents despite a seeming lack of superstar talent.

But we talk about the opposite case less often – the whole being less than the sum of its parts. That applies only to a special few teams who seem to make dysfunction an art form. And after bearing witness to Monday night’s 120-101 carnage in Atlanta, it’s safe to say the Knicks are one of them.

How awful were the Knicks? Let us count the ways. They committed 23 turnovers, with all 10 active players committing at least one. They started a here’s-the-beef frontline of Malik Rose, Maurice Taylor, and Eddy Curry, yet still were bludgeoned on the offensive glass by one of the league’s smallest frontcourts. They trailed by 30 points early in the fourth quarter before Atlanta – Atlanta! – called off the dogs and let the Knicks do some cosmetic scoring. You can’t even say it was a fluke that they gave up 120 points to the lowly Hawks, because last time they played in Atlanta they gave up 122. If this is playing the right way – that is, the Larry Brown way – maybe it’s time to try the wrong one.

Unfortunately, this is what the Knicks are – a last place team that doesn’t take care of the ball, doesn’t defend, and too willingly mails it in when on the road. And those weren’t Hawks fans cheering wildly on Monday – they were Chicagoans. With each Knicks loss, it gets more likely that the unprotected draft pick they foolishly gave Chicago in the trade for Curry will not only be in the lottery, but could even be no. 1. They’re paying $120 million in salaries for the league’s third-worst team, forfeited their next two first-round picks in a terrible and needless trade, and still don’t have a small forward. Other than that, things are great.

Of course, things don’t get this bad without some self-inflicted wounds, and the Knicks have suffered many. Some are obvious – the blank check given to Isiah Thomas, for instance. But even with Thomas’s many mistakes, the roster doesn’t scream out 14-30 – especially with a Hall of Fame coach at the helm.

No, the Knicks’ problems go deeper than their GM’s inability to make a rational decision. New York’s losing ways can be blamed on awful team chemistry and worse management chemistry.

First, the team. Think all those turnovers are an accident? Here’s one reason for them: The parts are completely mismatched. The Knicks’ strategy every game is to cram the ball into the post and batter opponents senseless with their many big men. But without any credible 3-point shooters to space the floor (sorry Quentin, but it’s just not your year), defenses collapse with impunity and force New York’s guards to squeeze the ball into impossibly tight spaces.

That small forward dilemma only adds to the problem. One play from Monday’s game provides a perfect example. With Curry on the strong side awaiting a post entry from a guard on the wing, “small forward” David Lee stood in the opposite corner. Or rather, he should have been in the opposite corner, like most small forwards. But because he can’t make a shot from out there – because he has as much business being a small forward as I do being the lead singer for Pearl Jam – Lee was actually 10 feet closer to the basket.

That allowed the man defending Lee, Atlanta’s Josh Childress, to cheat into the lane and cut off the angle for a lob pass to Curry. Normally, when this happens, the guard swings the ball into the far corner to a wide-open three point shooter. Instead, the guard tried to pass the ball to Lee, who was 10 feet closer, which meant Childress was 10 feet closer and could deflect the pass and force a turnover.

So the Knicks have the deepest frontcourt in basketball … but their big guys can’t get their hands on the ball. Teams can sag all they want because Lee and Rose are playing small forward for half the game and Quentin Richardson couldn’t find the basket if he had a GPS and three Lonely Planet guides.

The on-court chemistry is nothing, however, compared to the intrigues in the front office. Even before the sexual harassment case against Thomas exploded last week (can we call this the anvil that broke the camel’s back?), there has been a major power play brewing between Brown and Thomas. Forget all the platitudes he offered after taking the job – Brown hates this roster and wants it changed yesterday.

It’s no accident that his favorite players seem to be Qyntel Woods and Antonio Davis. Woods was picked up at Brown’s behest despite a lukewarm endorsement from Thomas, and had taken over the starting small forward job ahead of Thomas protege Trevor Ariza before sitting out Monday’s defeat with an injury. As for Davis, Thomas had been leaning toward waiving him as soon as he was acquired from Chicago, but Brown pushed to keep him and has had him in the starting lineup for much of this miserable season.

After Monday’s defeat, Brown fired another shot across Thomas’s bow, saying the team quit. “It looked that way, didn’t it?” Brown said. “We were acting like we just wanted to get home.”

Translation: The players Thomas had acquired quit – but not Davis or Woods, since neither of them played. Brilliant. And New York-area Kremlinologists are wondering if the seemingly random playing rotation is another part of the plan – what Larry is saying, some suspect, is that none of these guys are good enough.

Regardless of Brown’s motivations, the prescription is the same. Accountability starts at the top, and there’s no longer a shred of doubt left – Isiah must go. If Cablevision can find it in their hearts to take James Dolan with him and put somebody a tad less trusting in charge, so much the better.

Yes, it scares me to think that Brown – notorious for wanting to trade everybody – could end up with more say in personnel matters as a result. But really, could he be any worse than Thomas? And maybe if that day comes, the Knicks will look a little more like Brown’s teams in Detroit – adding up to something more than the sum of its parts, instead of so much less.

Mr. Hollinger is the author of the 2005-06 Pro Basketball Forecast. He can be reached at jhollinger@nysun.com.