Tonight a new era in Knickerbockers history begins. It is an era that has to be better than the previous era, right? Doesn’t it?

But how much better? And how much better should they be, are they expected to be?

I’m reading and hearing the popular number by all the experts predicting 35-39 wins for the Knicks this season, under new GM Donnie Walsh and new coach Mike D’Antoni.

But it’s basically the same Knicks, with a few changes. One is Chris Duhon, who will be an upgrade and a better point guard to run—literally—D’Antoni’s up-tempo offense, than Stephon Marbury. But Marbury is still here, and I think as a shooting guard he could actually be a pretty good player and contributor.

One other change is who is not playing: Eddie Curry is out of the rotation after being sick, and being out of shape, and being basically a bust since he got here.

The question remains: Should the Knicks strive to be good this year, or should they simply strive to identify and weed out players who are not part of the future? Should they spend the year learning D’Antoni’s system and integrating young players and hope for a decent spot in the next draft, with an eye toward shedding more expiring contracts (Marbury’s, for example) next year and being under the cap by 2010?

I think another year of losing wouldn’t be the worst thing for the Knicks at this point. However, with 15 percent of their season-ticket holders having opted not to renew this year, I’m sure there will be pressure from Jim Dolan to fix it right away.

So that’s one problem I foresee. If the Knicks have to choose between winning a few more games at the expense of being better and younger and cheaper next year, I think that’s a huge mistake.

The other problem is that, although D’Antoni’s system might be more fun to watch, and it might result in some more victories, how are these Knicks going to stop anybody? They didn’t play defense before, and they won’t be able to suddenly flip a switch and play better defense in a more offensive system. I see some 114-109 losses piling up. And some 128-96 blowout losses, too.