Depth is a more integral part of basketball than either football or baseball. Most NBA starters play 30-38 minutes per game. If the rules and conventions allowed the same resource allocation in baseball, then Hedeki Matsui, Derek Jeter, and Alex Rodriguez would stay on the bench during the 3rd and 6th inning of every Yankee game. The difference is easy to grasp. Baseball players run only when they put a ball in play or a ball is played to them; basketball players are on the run as long as the clock is ticking.

By playing his starters far more than usual this season, Lenny Wilkens is flouting basketball’s conventional wisdom, and it’s hurting the team. The starters have shown fatigue in big games and key contributors aren’t getting the minutes they deserve. This may have played a role in last week’s shellacking at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks, when the Knicks looked lethargic and fatigued from the opening tip. It certainly played a role in recent fourth quarter meltdowns against Detroit and Boston, as the Knicks failed to execute routine plays down the stretch.

Wilkens began deviating from standard bench use early this year. In the third game of the season, he left Stephon Marbury and Kurt Thomas on the court for more than 40 minutes in a victory over Philadelphia. It seemed to make sense at the time. Coaches usually only extend their regulars in key contests. The Sixers game was a must win, as it followed an embarrassing rout by Boston in the home opener.

Soon after, Wilkens’s only hand-picked assistant, Dick Helm, was canned and rumors began to swell that the veteran coach was on thin ice. Since then, Wilkens has made a habit of playing Thomas, Marbury, Jamal Crawford, and Nazr Mohammed 40 minutes a game or more. In 12 of the 25 games since the win over Philly, Wilkens has gone overboard with two or more of his starters. Wilkens has been on the hot seat, but this strategy will only hasten his exit.

Thus far, Knicks starters have logged almost 70% of the team’s minutes, a figure topped only by Washington and Phoenix, both of which feature younger squads and weaker benches. Also, the Suns’ heavy reliance on their starters is the biggest reason to believe that their fast start will not last. The Knicks’ percentage is remarkable when you consider that they’ve suffered four double-digit blowouts (in only 28 games!) where the starters sat for most if not all of the fourth quarter.

The Knicks, like other high-payroll teams – specifically Dallas and, until recently, Portland – have a good bench. These teams tend to pay starters salaries – if not star money – to reserve players. The Knicks bench includes swingman Allan Houston, guards Penny Hardaway and Moochie Norris, and forward Jerome Williams, all of whom have played well in limited minutes. The bench also includes two promising young players, forwards Michael Sweetney and Tervor Ariza. Each of the forwards deserves more action.

Sweetney, a second-year player from Georgetown, showed promise in his rookie campaign, and now he should get consideration for a starter’s role. His per-48 minutes tallies, 22.6 points, 12.6 rebounds, and 55% shooting, compare favorably with Kurt Thomas’s 14.9, 13.6, and 47%.

Thomas is regarded as the better defender, but age – he’s 32 and has complained recently of knee soreness – may be catching up to him. He has struggled this year against more mobile power forwards, especially those with reliable outside shots. Minnesota’s Kevin Garnett, Dallas’s Dirk Nowitzki, Memphis’s Pau Gasol, and Philadelphia’s Kenny Thomas have all exceeded their season averages against Thomas. With his decreasing mobility, Thomas would be better suited to share the pivot – a position he played capably two years ago – with Nazr Mohammed, freeing up more time for Sweetney and Williams at the four.

The Knicks are a poor defensive team, but Williams, an eight-year vet, and Ariza, a rookie from UCLA, are aggressive defenders who play inside and outside with exceptional zeal. They spurred last Friday’s comeback from a 19-point, fourth-quarter deficit in Philadelphia. Williams defended Nowitzki effectively in the team’s first meeting last month in Dallas; it was mystifying, then, to see him glued to the pine as the German sharpshooter’s 23 first-half points led the Mavericks to a 39-point halftime lead in the second meeting.

Meanwhile, Ariza was rewarded for his hearty effort against the Sixers by getting only four minutes in the next game versus Utah; he saw only garbage time minutes against Dallas.

It’s also bewildering to see Sweetney and Ariza not get their share of minutes, since Wilkens has a well-deserved reputation as a youth-friendly coach. In Seattle, he gave Jack Sikma and Dennis Johnson minutes ahead of veteran starters and won his only title. In other locales, he gave opportunities to Mark Price, Craig Ehlo, and Morris Petersen. (By the same token, Cleveland fans probably wish he wasn’t so generous with minutes for Danny Ferry, a can’t-miss star who missed.) If Wilkens had followed his usual personnel management strategies, the Knicks would be a better team right now.

Only wishful thinkers believe that this Knicks team has the potential for greatness. They still lack a strategy to beat zone defenses and their interior defense is pathetic. There’s little with the existing personnel that Wilkens can do to fix these problems. But it’s the coach’s job to make the most out of the present roster, and by playing the starters as if every midseason game is Game 7 of the Conference Finals, Wilkens is diminishing the Knicks’ chances of even making the playoffs.