Former Knicks great Walt Frazier will ask Isiah Thomas if he can work with rookie guard Mardy Collins this offseason, The Post has learned.

Frazier said he wants the chance to work with Collins for a few days this spring because he sees himself in the 6-foot-6 rookie - a tall, tough-defending guard with deceptive quickness and a cool demeanor, but sans a jump shot. Frazier, now a Knicks broadcaster, developed a perimeter game after a few seasons.

"I'm going to ask Isiah because there's a few things I can show him," Frazier told The Post on Wednesday in Charlotte, N.C. "Once you get in the paint, control your body. Things very simple that he's not thinking about."

The Knicks are out of the playoffs and in the lottery, but Isiah Thomas said he believes the Knicks are the best 33-49 team ever assembled.

The club won their season finale in Charlotte, but Thomas was angry the season concluded.

"I was ticked off," Thomas admitted. "I wish we were still playing, still continuing. I didn't feel elated at all walking off the court. As a matter of fact, I was a little angry."

On Wednesday, Isiah Thomas said he has no interest in bringing in another "basketball mind" such as Jerry West. Thomas said he needs "a basketball player."

Earlier in the week, James Dolan said he would only approach West about a position with the Knicks if Thomas asked him to.

Garden chairman James Dolan, speaking on WFAN Tuesday, said he would only contact Jerry West about joining the Knicks "if Isiah asked for it."

"I wouldn't say to Isiah, 'Hey, Isiah, Jerry's coming in and you've got to take it,'" Dolan said. "No, I would never do that. I made a commitment to Isiah," Dolan said. "And I made a commitment that the whole team feels, and a commitment to a strategy. And when you make a commitment, a commitment's a commitment."

The Knicks' season fell apart after James Dolan extended the contract of Isiah Thomas, a decision the owner stands behind.

"I?m very confident in the decision that I made,? said Dolan in a 30-minute interview on the radio station WFAN. ?I feel it was the right decision.?

The Knicks have lost 15 of 18 games since the announcement.

Dolan said Thomas?s contract was justified because the Knicks had shown ?that they were capable of executing a strategy that?s going to ultimately give us a team that will contend for the N.B.A. championship.?

Steve Francis is the member of the Knicks most likely to not return, but said he wants to remain with the club next season.

"I love the stage we're on playing at the Garden, despite the boos, despite you guys destroying us in the paper," he said

Apparently Bulls coach Scott Skiles' remarks last week, when he said Eddy Curry is "having a very good year but it seems like he's being put on a pedestal awful quickly here," lit a fire under the Knicks' 6-foot-11, 285-pound center.

Curry is fuming at his former coach for demeaning his breakout season, calling Skiles "very disrespectful."

Curry's season may have ended last night in the Knicks' Garden finale. He strained his right hamstring in the first half and did not return in a 104-95 loss to the Nets.

With one game left, the Knicks fell to 32-49 and could reach 50 losses for the second straight year. Afterward, coach/president Isiah Thomas met with owner James Dolan for 15 minutes. Thomas said it was hardly a meeting.

Curry said he will try to play in tomorrow's season-finale in Charlotte.

"If it's not hurting," he said, "I'm going to play."

The Knicks' season went up in flames in mid-March, coinciding with the new contract Dolan lavished on Thomas. The Knicks are 3-15 since and the only one of the nine New York major sports teams to not make the playoffs under the 2006-2007 umbrella.

The Raptors set three goals before the season: make the playoffs, win the Division, and get home-court advantage in the first round.

Chris Bosh and company went 3-for-3.

Bosh scored 23 points and the Raptors earned the third seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs with a 107-105 victory over the Knicks on Sunday night.

Toronto matched its franchise record of 47 wins, accomplished in 2000-01. They clinched their first Atlantic title last month, and are going to the playoffs for the first time in five years.

The Knicks are unlikely to make a big play this summer to shake up their roster but could make a sign-and-trade bid for Ruben Patterson.

Patterson has been on the Knicks' radar for several seasons now and is coming off a good season with Milwaukee.

David Lee likes the Knicks' core of talent and is looking forward to next season.  

?Oh man, I remember being here last year,? Lee said in New Jersey before tonight's game. ?Everybody was kind of in a bad mood and ready to get the season done. Right now I think there?s great hope for the future. We have a great young core of guys. Eddy Curry?s had a tremendous year. I think that our team comes back healthy next year, we?ve got a chance to be one of the better teams in the East. I?m looking forward to it.?

The medical terminology to describe Lee?s right leg injury has changed again.  Lee said doctors now call it a bone bruise with a strained peroneal tendon after new tests were performed.

Jamal Crawford has been cleared for all basketball activity and has not ruled out playing in one of the final three games.  ?I?m not expecting to play, but anything?s possible.?