When Herb Williams was hired January 22 as the Knicks’ interim coach, many felt he would be little more than a seat warmer for the coach who followed him – certainly not someone who would have much impact on the team. Instead, he’s instituted changes that have yielded significant results, with the Knicks winning seven of their last 12 games and four of five since the trade deadline.

New York’s 115-99 win over Golden State on Sunday night was a microcosm of Williams’s tenure. When the offense ran smoothly in the first and fourth quarters, it was due to tweaks he’s made in the game plan, and the Knicks were able to run up big leads. When the team got away from Williams’s designs, the offense bogged down. Happily, the good far outweighed the bad, which has been the case for the better part of a month.

Williams’s major contribution to the team has been altering the focal point of the offense. Under Lenny Wilkens, guards Stephon Marbury and Jamal Crawford were called upon to lead the team from the perimeter with an occasional pick-and-roll play with forward/center Kurt Thomas. Although Marbury is adept at breaking down opponents off the dribble and getting to the rim, this strategy still resulted in the Knick offense being too reliant on the guards. Opponents recognized the tendency and forced the Knicks into chaotic plays by keeping the ball out of Marbury’s hands and daring Crawford to fire low-percentage shots, which he was more than willing to do.

Williams has completely overhauled the team’s half-court approach in the wake of the trade-deadline deal that sent starting center Nazr Mohammed to San Antonio. He’s created plays that call for forwards Tim Thomas and Michael Sweetney, his two best low-post players, to get the ball early in the shot clock and in good position to score. This compels defenses to focus on the paint and results in better looks on the perimeter for Marbury and Crawford.

Williams’s ability to identify an effective use for Tim Thomas bodes well for his career in coaching. Wilkens used Thomas mostly as a perimeter shooter and failed to capitalize on his advantages in the low post; the same held true for Thomas’s previous coach in Milwaukee, George Karl. In retrospect, this seems an oversight: At 6 feet 10 inches and 240 pounds, Thomas is bigger and longer than most opposing small forwards, meaning he can overpower most of them down low.

The design of most successful offenses is to get as many shots as possible as close in as possible. By making that the Knicks’ first priority, Williams has improved their offense on a fundamental level – and he might have rescued Thomas’s career. This may seem simplistic, but the improvement in Thomas’s shooting is dramatic. In January, under Wilkens, he shot 33.3% from the field. In the new offense, he’s shooting 57.1%. He’s also topped 25 points three times in the last five games after failing to pass that threshold through the season’s first 42 games.

When Thomas isn’t dominating in the low post, the team is looking to Sweetney. The Georgetown product moved into the starting lineup after Mohammed’s departure at the trade deadline, and since then, he’s had two superb games and three middling ones.

He enjoyed one of his finest games as a pro on Sunday, scoring 18 first-quarter points, all but one on easy baskets in the paint. Sweetney may be a tad small for a power forward, but he’s a wide body, which enables him to maintain his position against bigger defenders. He’s also surprising agile for his size: Against the Warriors, two of Sweetney’s first-quarter baskets came on nifty spin moves that left defenders wondering how the Knick forward disappeared so quickly.

As the Knicks commit more completely to Williams’s strategy, Sweetney, Thomas, and other low-post options like newcomer Maurice Taylor will have more opportunities to score. But the team still has a long way to go.

Despite using their inside strength to build a substantial lead in the first quarter of the Golden State game, the Knicks drifted away from the tactic in the second and third quarters, and played lackadaisical defense as the Warriors caught up and took a brief lead. Williams, like his predecessor, opted not to berate the team over the lapse, preferring to simply cajole them back on track.

Despite his Hall of Fame credentials, Wilkens was canned primarily for his inability to elicit any sort of defensive intensity from his players. Williams, too, has failed to inspire the team on the defensive end, where the Knicks remain among the dregs of the league, allowing 106.2 points per 100 possessions. Their continued defensive shortcomings – highlighted by Friday’s embarrassing 111-89 loss in Orlando, where Magic layups were all but given away – still threaten to sink whatever offensive improvements the Knicks have made.

While the team’s current hot streak is no doubt pleasing to Knick fans, the organization must remain focused on the future. Herb’s job, at least for the time being, is twofold: He must make the best use of the talent at hand to maximize the potential trade value of players like the Thomases, while also establishing an effective structure for the younger players. To do that effectively, he’ll not only have to convince his team to start moving their feet on defense, but he’ll also need to develop schemes that isolate and attack the opponent’s most potent players. If he does that, he might just get the interim tag lifted from his title.