NBA

Gallinari’s the key to Knicks revival

Carmelo Anthony might come to the Knicks, unless he doesn’t. Worse, if you are James Dolan, Donnie Walsh and Mike D’Antoni, the biggest NBA star still hot to trot could wind up with the Nets in Newark on the way to Brooklyn.

So who is going to be here regardless? Who, after all those wasted Isiah Thomas years wasting Dolan’s dollars, and two years’ sacrifice by the new regime towards this start of what they stake their reputations on as a real nucleus, can re-light the flame?

After nine springs without a single postseason win, when all the emphasis deservedly was on the failings of ownership, at some point the players already assembled must take ownership.

Amar’e Stoudemire, in every word uttered since his July signing, and last night with 39 points in almost 37 minutes of what he obviously did not regard as a meaningless exhibition win over the Nets, clearly has taken his $100 million with the intent of earning every penny.

But for the new commander, the fort could come under siege in a hurry, the cavalry an exhausting bugle’s call away unless some lieutenants help take charge.

So it’s time for Danilo Gallinari to do it, not just because the guys who drafted him may be running out of time but because in Year Three, with a sound back and a genuine star in Stoudemire to watch his back, the occasion has arrived.

After barely getting a touch in the first six minutes last night, Gallinari returned three minutes into the second quarter for a steal, a twisting layup and a finish from Raymond Felton off a turnover. Gallinari dunked over Devin Harris on a feed from Roger Mason, hit a corner jumper and fed a Stoudemire layup all within a 2:41 stretch.

Then Gallinari started the third quarter with a turnover and got yanked after six invisible minutes, never to return.

“We were blowing a 16-point lead and other guys were playing better,” D’Antoni said tersely.

The fans love Gallinari a lot, considering how little he has done through a rookie season ruined by back problems and a second season that had moments, just not enough of them. Will it turn out they have good or bad taste?

“You have to play with a certain focus and intensity every night,” D’Antoni said earlier in the week. “That’s where [Gallinari] will make the biggest jump, bringing it from the first minute to the last every game, something we’ve talked about.”

Today, we are talking about how Gallinari again didn’t continue to bring it, something New York — no matter how many points Stoudemire scores — will talk about all season should the Knicks make only a cosmetic jump from 29 wins.

Gallinari has the stroke and at 6-foot-10, the size. We’ll see if he has the will to light it up as his coach, declaring his first building block the greatest shooter he has ever seen, has predicted.

Take it to the bank, insists D’Antoni, who doesn’t care if Gallinari ever takes it to the hole.

“If you’re a bear, you don’t want him to be a dog,” D’Antoni said.

Boy, the Knicks desperately don’t want Gallinari to be a dog. Otherwise, a sixth-overall pick for a rebuilding team with nothing on the roster to show for the past two first rounds — and now desperately trying to get a first-round pick back to make the deal for Anthony — becomes the next Knicks coach and GM’s problem.

Not only is he huge for a perimeter player, Gallinari is even larger to the fate of the franchise and the people who run it.

jay.greenberg@nypost.com