Knicks are really good but still need a star player to become title threat

NEW YORK — The last time the Knicks were even close to big ideas at this time of year was 10 years ago next month, when Carmelo Anthony went down the baseline and tried to throw down a dunk against the Pacers in Game 6 in Indianapolis.

The Knicks were playing for their season that night, down 3-2 but trying to get themselves a chance at a Game 7 at the Garden and then a chance to play the Eastern Conference finals against LeBron and the Heat, against whom they had won three of four games that year.

Carmelo was the leading man the Knicks needed that season, until he wasn’t, meeting Roy Hibbert at the rim.

The Knicks had won 54 games that year under Mike Woodson, one of the most underappreciated coaches in the history of the franchise even if the genius Phil Jackson didn’t see things that way later. Carmelo was No. 3 in the MVP voting, J.R. Smith, bless his heart, was Sixth Man of the Year, and Jason Kidd had the ball.

There were a lot of role players you don’t remember from that season — Pablo Prigioni, Iman Shumpert and Steve Novak are a few of the names — but the Knicks still won the Atlantic Division. And even though they had put themselves into a hole by losing Game 1 to the Pacers at the Garden, they were up 92-90 without about five minutes left, and if Carmelo threw one down they were up four.

Only Hibbert, a Georgetown guy about to be a bad man against Patrick Ewing’s old team, produced his fifth block of that game, an amazing, all-world block at the rim, and the Pacers went on a 9-0 run from there and finally won by seven and the Knicks were done.

Now, 10 years after all that, the Knicks team that opened the playoffs Saturday night against the Cavaliers is the organization’s best since then, at least when Julius Randle is out there with Jalen Brunson and RJ Barrett.

The Knicks are much better than they were two years ago, when they finished No. 4 in the conference. They’re deeper, more talented and more athletic while trying to do exactly what Woodson’s Knicks did a decade ago: play themselves into a shot at the best team in the conference and best player, which means Giannis, Milwaukee’s LeBron. Somebody else always has one of the best players; the Knicks never do.

It is why the best thing the Knicks have done, especially this season, is not produce the record they have. It is that being as young, deep and talented as they are could make them an attractive destination when one of the best players — say someone like Luka Doncic — wakes up one morning and wants to come be a leading man on a big stage in New York.

You know what the dream really is for the Knicks, even as they’re trying to win their second postseason series in this century?

It is Luka. Or somebody like Luka. One of those guys.

Randle, before his ankle injury and around the times when he acted like a hothead, has been one of the truly admirable blue-collar players in the league this season.

Brunson, of course, has become as important a free-agent acquisition as the Knicks have ever had. Barrett is still just 22 years old and a fascinating work in progress.

Maybe the Knicks can keep adding talented role players. Maybe they can find another Immanuel Jaylen Quickley with the 25th pick in the first round and add that player to what they have and move up a little more in the standings.

But how far? Barring some sort of new Miracle on 33rd Street, do you see them being better than the Bucks anytime soon, or the Celtics or 76ers, at least until they start breaking up the 76ers again?

The Knicks need somebody to be the kind of star Carmelo was when he was at his best and carried them in 2012-13, when he averaged nearly 29 points and carried them all the way to Roy Hibbert.

The Knicks need a Luka, who is now stuck on a team, the Mavericks, who were as big a disappointment as there was in the sport this season.

Or maybe there’s a way for them to get an even better Kentucky kid than Quickley by getting Shai Gilgeous-Alexander out of Oklahoma City. Because you know what? Gilgeous-Alexander was an even better basketball player than Luka this season and has a team that was still playing this week.

And Gilgeous-Alexander should be something else, when all is said and done, and that means All-NBA — first-team All-NBA. He was that good for the Thunder.

The Knicks were a show again this season, even more than they were two years ago before they lost to Trae Young and the Hawks in the first round.

They have beaten the Celtics this season in a thrilling overtime game, beaten the 76ers, beaten the Nuggets, Kings and Suns. They’re really good, and they absolutely could be a destination for a great player who wants to come to New York and at least put them back in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999.

You just wonder when that might be. And, if you’re a Knicks fan, dream about who it might be.