While many Knicks fans are at best ambivalent about team president and coach Isiah Thomas, the NBA draft is one unambiguous time to feel very good about having the man in your corner. Thomas’s most indisputable strength is his scouting and drafting, particularly his selections in the latter third of the first round and the second round have been superb. Consider the evidence:

Okay, before you start wondering who the mustard man is, Thompson was traded on draft night for Nate Robinson. So the Isiah Five is a team of L’il Nate, Collins, Ariza, Balkman, and Lee. That five could beat any other NBA team’s draft picks in the same time frame and this isn’t even including Channing Frye, the eighth overall selection in the first round in 2005.

But who will this year’s pick be? Isiah is playing coy, telling the press that it could be anybody because the team needs “everything.” Of course, a 33–49 team isn’t short on need, but the Knicks true agenda is far short of everything. Lee was a revelation before his injury. Balkman spent the year proving all of the detractors wrong, and yes, that includes me and nearly every other hoops writer, except a few NIT geeks who saw him play against a decent level of competition. At worst Frye figures to be not as bad as he was last season, though perhaps not as good as he looked in his rookie campaign. Whatever Robinson did last summer turned him from a nifty novelty into an effective reserve, and Collins hustled a lot late in the season. (He will need to develop a mid-range jump shot if he’d like to become a member of the rotation, but that’s the part of Robinson’s game that improved most dramatically last season, so perhaps the Knicks are on to a shooting coach).

Also in assessing the Knicks’ needs, it’s vital to remember that the Knicks exploited a loophole in the NCAA rules and signed center Randolph Morris, just weeks after his career as a University of Kentucky Wildcat ended. In 44 minutes played, Morris grabbed nine rebounds, blocked a shot, and had two steals. Last year’s sample size is insufficient to draw any conclusions but that’s a promising start.

So the Knicks lineup looks a bit like this:

Centers: Eddy Curry, Randolph Morris.

Power Forwards: David Lee, Channing Frye, and Malik Rose.

Small Forwards: Renaldo Balkman, Jared Jeffries, and Quentin Richardson.

Guards: Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis, Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson, and Mardy Collins

I lumped the guards together since the Knicks seem to like their guards to be combinations of point and shooting guards; it’s probably an extension of Thomas’s playing days when he and backcourt mate Joe Dumars could play either guard position.

The rotation looks set as long as they can stay on the floor, which should free the Knicks to do what you’re supposed to do with a late draft pick: take the best available athlete. Looking at the Knicks via advanced metrics yields the same conclusion. The team is mediocre offensively (17th in points scored per 100 possessions) and awful defensively (24th in points allowed per 100 possessions). The main culprit is turnovers. The team turns the ball over too often on offense and doesn’t force enough mistakes on defense. Also, the team allows too many easy shots. Some of that problem may be remedied with the addition of Morris, who blocked two shots a game his last season at Kentucky; he’ll be a defensive force in the paint compared to Curry’s soft stances. Turnovers on offense may be a persistent problem of having Curry as the focal point in the offense. Getting Balkman more minutes may lead to more turnovers on defense.

The Knicks are rumored to have assured DePaul forward Wilson Chandler that they’ll select him if he’s on the board at no. 23. It wouldn’t be a bad choice, but it would be a curious move given Thomas’s skill in this area. This is a deep and volatile draft; I expect several trades and players who figured to be in the lottery falling into the late first round, if not the second round. It would be best to keep as many options as possible open. However, shortly after the Knicks worked out Chandler at their facility in Tarrytown, N.Y., the prospect began cancelling his workouts scheduled with other teams. Chandler is 6-foot-8-inches and a good leaper with solid athleticism. Nothing in his statistics portfolio screams big star, but his 1.4 blocks a game is a good sign.

If not Chandler, the Knicks are said to be looking at Ohio State guard Daequan Cook, Boston College power forward Sean Williams, or Marist point guard Jared Jordan. None of these players offer the same fit as Chandler fortifying the case for his guarantee.

But Thomas is a good poker player when it comes to the draft. No one suspected he was interested in Balkman last year.

Who would I take? Probably Chandler, but that’s only if Duke big man Josh McRoberts is off the board. A glut of talented young big men is the best kind of roster construction problem to have.

mjohnson@nysun.com