NBA

D’Antoni gets free pass, unlike Frank

Lawrence Frank and Mike D’Antoni were technically in the same boat, trying to maneuver upstream without strong enough paddles.

Their teams were shredded of most of their talent to position themselves well enough under the salary cap to sign one or two big-time free agents who will be available this summer. But injuries to key players like Devin Harris and a 0-16 start cost Frank his job yesterday. He was fired before the Nets lost to the Lakers, 106-87, last night in Los Angeles tying the NBA record for the worst record to begin a season at 0-17.

“You gotta look at the lineup he put on the floor,” Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said in Frank’s defense. “They simply didn’t have enough talent. But they took a lot of games to the wire and quite honestly I don’t know how in the heck he was doing it. That’s probably as little talent as I’ve seen anybody put on the floor in a long time.”

KNICKS BLOG

Van Gundy could have easily been talking about the Knicks, who dropped to 3-14 after a 114-102 loss to Orlando at the Garden. The Knicks have been whittled down to bare bones, hoping to score big when free agency opens. Yet, they were competitive for much of the game last night before the defending Eastern Conference champions began to pull comfortably ahead with about five minutes to play.

“To beat these guys we had to hit on all cylinders,” D’Antoni said. “They didn’t go to the Finals for no reason.”

In only his second season, D’Antoni has a much longer leash than Frank, who was in his sixth season with the Nets. The purge of talent on the Knicks’ roster began when D’Antoni and general manager Donnie Walsh arrived before the start of the 2008-09 campaign, making these two years a free pass of sorts for the Knicks coach.

As ugly as this start has been, D’Antoni’s 3-14 record isn’t as damning as Frank’s 0-16 record was. In fact, D’Antoni insisted last night that his record during these first two give-away seasons, 35-64, doesn’t necessarily bother him as he focuses on the long-range rebuilding of the Knicks.

“You just want to do a good job and you want to be respected,” he said. “It’s like a scoring average. Should it matter? Most people just want to be on a winning team.”

Actually, it may matter and could ultimately threaten D’Antoni’s security much the same way it cost Frank his job yesterday. With the Knicks’ fan base hoping to be instantly competitive if not a championship contender through free agency, the pressure will be on D’Antoni to produce quickly next year.

If the Knicks don’t get LeBron James, Dwyane Wade or Joe Johnson and if the 2010-11 season doesn’t have some early success, suddenly, the losses D’Antoni is compiling during these two years of getting under the cap could ultimately be used against him.

If life were fair, D’Antoni, who averaged 58 wins over his final four seasons in Phoenix, would have an asterisk placed next to his record for 2008-10 with some sort of explanation why it’s so poor. “Team gutted to sign LeBron,” would be an appropriate notation.

In one breath D’Antoni says he’s not concerned about his record with the Knicks. But when pressed he admitted the only way to judge a coach is by wins and losses.

“That’s all that matters,” he said. “You have to win. That’s the only way you can measure him.”

Right now, he would be judged a failure. But unlike Frank, who was expected to do more with less, D’Antoni is safe for this season and probably next. But if the Knicks don’t become a winner soon after 2010, then these first two seasons could wind up haunting D’Antoni more than he ever expected.

george.willis@nypost.com