In a press conference yesterday at Madison Square Garden, Donnie Walsh was officially introduced as the next team president and director of basketball operations for the Knicks.

While there were many questions about Walsh’s future plans, he kept his intentions close to the vest. He repeatedly told reporters that he intends to sit down with coach and outgoing team president Isiah Thomas about a wide range of issues concerning the team’s future and Thomas’s role in it. Walsh did say that he sees the Knicks having cap flexibility in three years and didn’t want to make any personnel moves to jeopardize that. But otherwise, folks hoping for an announcement of a thorough housecleaning of the Knicks’ front office and coaching staff will have to wait. “I want to sit down and talk with everyone here,” Walsh said. “I just got here; I don’t want to make any moves without seeing the situation up close.”

Walsh brings a wealth of experience to the Knicks’ front office. The 67-year-old Bronx native was a standout player at Fordham Prep and coached the Denver Nuggets in the late 1970s. He’s best known for his 24 years with the Indiana Pacers, turning a franchise that had struggled since joining in the NBA in 1976-77 into a perennial playoff team. During Walsh’s tenure, the Pacers went to the Eastern Conference Finals six times, and lost the 2000 NBA Finals to the Los Angeles Lakers. Although Walsh preferred to remain mum about his future plans involving the Knicks, his lengthy track record gives some indications on what his modus operandi is on several key fronts: coaching, point guard play, and the draft.

Walsh keeps his coaches on a very short leash. Hall of Fame coach Jack Ramsay coached only two years under Walsh, and veterans of the bench such as Dick Versace and George Irvine lasted only two. Ironically, Larry Brown, in one of his longest tenures, and Rick Carlisle lead the Pacers’ longevity race with four seasons each. One of the keys is that Walsh has no patience for losing. Ramsay, Versace, and Brown were all gone as soon as their teams took a downward turn.

What this means for the Knicks should be obvious. For all of the rumors that Thomas may be staying on as coach, this evidence makes it seem very, very unlikely. Walsh has a four-year deal and he intends to be shopping for free agents by the end of his term. To do that, the Knicks will have to be a rising team with a cap-friendly payroll. Thomas’s tenure as coach is ghastly — 33–49 last season — and the team is already guaranteed to have a worse mark this season. Perhaps since Thomas is signed to a lucrative long-term deal, he’ll stay on as some sort of “special assistant” to chairman James Dolan. But it’s a safe bet he won’t be allowed anywhere near the Knicks bench. Walsh approved Thomas’s firing in Indiana after he won 48 games in a season. He won’t have won 48 in two seasons with the Knicks.

Walsh wants point guards that are distributors first and defenders second. Local high school standout Vern Fleming was a Pacers point guard for the first decade of Walsh’s tenure there. His assists numbers were stellar, he took care of the basketball, and defended opposing points well. When it was time to replace him, Walsh cycled through a variety of journeyman point guards who could score such as Pooh Richardson, Haywoode Workman, and Michael Williams, before acquiring a former player for the Knicks, Mark Jackson, to run the show until current Pacers point guard Jamaal Tinsley arrived via the draft.

This news might make Knicks fans even happier than the increasing likelihood that the Thomas era has only two more weeks left. There hasn’t been a pass-first, solid defender point guard on the Knicks roster in years. The Knicks have a slew of shooting guards playing the point such as Jamal Crawford and Nate Robinson, and one point guard, Stephon Marbury, who might be better off playing the other backcourt position. Whether it is via the draft or free agency (and likely both), expect to see more traditional point guard play next season.

When possible, Walsh drafts big. Antonio Davis, Dale Davis, Rik Smits, Erick Dampier, and Austin Croshere were all first-round picks of Walsh. His reputation for toughness came on his willingness to draft Reggie Miller over hometown hero Steve Alford in 1987. But for the most part, Walsh likes to use the draft to fill the two toughest positions on the floor, center and point guard.

While that tendency could mean good things for point guard prospects such as Derrick Rose or Jerryd Bayliss, it could also mean a trade down to a lower pick, especially if it means ridding the roster of some of the deadweight that Thomas has collected.

Overall, the mess that we call the New York Knicks has seemed like a job too big for any one man, but Walsh has been in this situation before. Indiana is a basketball-crazy state, and when Walsh took his job with the Pacers, they were coming off 60- and 56-loss seasons. What’s more, the team was a clear second banana to the Indiana University Hoosiers and possibly even the Purdue University Boilermakers. Within a few years, the Pacers were winning and respected. In that regard, Knicks fans have to hope history repeats itself.

mjohnson@nysun.com