Bob Cook

Micheal Ray Richardson, as the 1981-82 Knicks stumbled toward a 33-49 record, surmised that “the ship be sinkin’.” These days, the Knicks’ ship isn’t floating enough to be sinking. Especially not with the dead weight New York general manager Isiah Thomas keeps tossing on board.

With the acquisition of Steve Francis from Orlando for Penny Hardaway and Trevor Ariza on Wednesday, Thomas has completed his fourth trade in two years for a shoot-first guard. In exchange, he has given the other team the salary-cap relief it craved to launch a rebuilding effort, and at the same time has hamstrung his own dubious rebuilding effort. (Entering the All-Star break, Thomas had taken his team from a 39-43 record in 2003-04 to 15-37, only better than expansion Charlotte. Also entering the All-Star break, the Knicks had lost 16 of 18 games — that following a six-game winning streak.)

In an NBA trade, the goal is either to improve your team by adding the right player, or by clearing salary-cap room. The acquisition of Francis does neither.

While Francis is certainly a much better player than either the so-over-the-hill-he’s-at-the-bottom-of-the-other-side Hardaway or Ariza, a shoot-first forward whom Knicks coach Larry Brown once assessed as “delusional,” Brown certainly didn’t request Thomas find one more Knick, especially a point guard, with a me-first attitude on offense and a diffident attitude toward defense.

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The guy traded from Houston for not involving Yao Ming enough in the offense, and now traded by Orlando for not involving Dwight Howard enough in the offense, is surely not going to bend over backward to involve Channing Frye or Eddy Curry in the offense. That’s assuming he can get the ball from fellow shoot-first guards Stephon Marbury, Jalen Rose, Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson and Qyntel Woods. The Knicks’ last-place standing in assists is assured for the rest of the season.

The Knicks’ first-place standing in as the team with the highest, deadest-weight payroll, on the other hand, is assured for far longer.

The Knicks have a league-high $125 million payroll, almost $80 million above the $49.5 million salary cap. Hardaway’s $15.8 million was due to expire after this season, but in acquiring Francis, who turned 29 Tuesday, and pairing him with Marbury, who turned 29 Monday, the Knicks are now committed to contracts keeping the NBA’s most expensive starting backcourt together for the next 3 1/2 seasons. (They’ll make $31 million this year, and $38 million in 2009, the final year of their deals.)

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Yes, being able to trade contracts dollar-for-dollar above the salary cap does make a player such as Hardaway a desired commodity, just as Toronto wanted Antonio Davis to get his expiring contract and shove Rose’s longer, bloated deal on the Knicks in their trade a few weeks back. And just as Chicago did before last season when it took on the expiring contract of Dikembe Mutombo to shove Crawford’s longer, bloated deal onto the Knicks. And just as Phoenix did in the middle of the 2004 when it shoved Marbury's longer, bloated deal onto the Knicks to free up the money used to sign reigning MVP Steve Nash.

(Not to mention how Chicago shoved shoot-first, rebound-later center Curry onto the Knicks before this season to take on the expiring contract of Tim Thomas as well as what should be a very high first-round pick in 2006, the two Knicks deals giving Chicago greater cap flexibility in signing its younger players and perhaps making a free-agent splash.)