So … is this the exit strategy?

After a season that couldn’t possibly have gone any worse, Knicks coach Larry Brown has complained of health problems recently and hasn’t been on the sidelines. It remains to be seen if he’ll be back this week to see the Knicks play out their train wreck of a season.

The bigger question, though, is what happens this summer. The famously nomadic coach is still under contract for four more years, but it’s quite possible that his recent health issues (to recap, Brown was hospitalized Thursday night in Cleveland with a stomach ailment after becoming ill during the Knicks’ loss to the Cavaliers. He returned home Friday, but did not travel with the team to Milwaukee and was not in Detroit last night) are no more than a face-saving measure that will allow him and the Knicks to part company after the season.

The benefits to both sides are plainly obvious. For Brown’s part, he couldn’t possibly enjoy coaching this team any less. As a coach, he’s always valued defensive-minded players and passfirst point guards, but with the Knicks, he’s been saddled with offensive-oriented players and shoot-first point guards. In particular, Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis seem to mix with his system like oil and water, which is unfortunate since they’re New York’s two highest-paid players.

Moreover, it’s probably now obvious to Brown what a long-term rebuilding job would be needed for New York to become even remotely competitive. Considering he’s 65 and his health problems are real (even if the current episode may be exaggerated), it’s doubtful he has the stomach to watch this team struggle for a couple more years before – maybe – turning the corner.

If Brown bolts now, he could at least emerge from this with a small dollop of his reputation intact. Based on his history, that’s something deeply important to him. As one team executive told me, “When you’re drawing up your list of scenarios for how this plays out, you can cross Larry taking the blame off the list.”

That same exec told me flat out that Brown was the best coach in the game, but his point was that when the going gets tough, Larry gets out. And usually, he’s adept enough at reading the tea leaves to develop an exit plan long before he relinquishes his coaching duties.

That’s what happened the last time he coached in this area, of course. Brown had already made a deal to coach the University of Kansas the following season while he was still under contract with the Nets – and the season wasn’t even over. Similarly, a year ago he was pondering a “dream job” with the Knicks (watch what you wish for, people) and talking with the Cavaliers about a possible front office position, all while leading the Pistons through the playoffs.

Brown also knows he won’t be the fall guy if he leaves now. Despite the many criticisms Brown has received for his work this season, team president Isiah Thomas remains the lightning rod for fans’ dissatisfaction, and deservedly so. It was Thomas who brought in all of the mismatched parts that Brown had to figure out a way to assemble, not to mention trading the draft choice to Chicago in the Eddy Curry deal that could end up being the first overall pick.

So from Brown’s perspective, the motivation for walking away now is understandable – especially if he can get the Knicks to buy him out. Considering how wasteful New York has been with its other contracts, he probably figures he has a decent chance of getting most of the money he’s owed on the final four years of his contract.

The more interesting question, however, is this: Regardless of whether Larry is scheming to walk away, do the Knicks even want him back?

Despite how poorly Brown fared this year, I can think of a couple reasons why the answer might be yes. For starters, he is the only thing providing the organization with the slightest smidgen of credibility. Certainly Thomas doesn’t have any, and neither do any of the overpaid ne’er-do-wells he’s traded for in the past two years. Knicks fans were excited at the start of this season solely because they thought Brown might whip the mismatched roster into something resembling a basketball team.

Second, who would take the Knicks’ job right now, other than perhaps perennial assistant Herb Williams? Any self-respecting coaching candidate would conclude that the Knicks were a bad team full of difficult players and run screaming in the other direction. Moreover, a logical candidate would surmise that doing well would, in turn, make Isiah look good, thereby prolonging the agony of having Isiah procuring the talent for his team. Even the profligate Knicks may not have enough cash to tempt a candidate in these circumstances.

Against this, there is one good reason to not want Brown back: this entire season. Sorry, but almost any other coach in captivity would have been canned a long time ago, five-year contract be damned. In addition to the well-documented neuroses that prevented him from using the same rotation for more than two games at a time, Brown seemed to openly undermine his bosses in the press and quickly distanced himself from any and all personnel moves in the Thomas era.

Longtime Brown observers know this to be part of the drill with Larry. He’s going to rip players in the press from time to time, he’s going to want everybody on his roster traded at some point during the season, and he’s going to gush over every other player in the league, especially if it’s somebody he used to coach. But until this year, his teams have always ended up much better off at the end of his tenure than they were at the beginning.

The question is whether this bargain is still worth it for the Knicks … or for Larry.

Personally, I’d still like to see him have one more go at it, after some efforts at housecleaning this summer, because I think winning games in his hometown Garden would energize Larry even more than losing demoralized him.

Don’t bet on seeing that happen, though. Considering Brown’s history and the timing of the health problems this week, one has to wonder if he’s already coached his last game as a Knick. If so, it would be a sad ending to a Knicks season that never seems to run out of ways to disappoint us.

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