NBA Insider: Chauncey in Knicks’ plans?

As everyone knows, the Knicks have a decision to make about their point guard position at the end of this season. By contractual rule, the team can save $10.5 million of the $14.2 million Chauncey Billups is scheduled to make in 2011-12 if they opt to waive the veteran point guard within five days of their last game.

But a person with knowledge of the team’s thinking said the Knicks aren’t looking at that as an option and instead are considering committing to the 34-year-old Billups beyond 2012. The thinking is that Billups could be exactly what they need as a leader to direct the offense with star players Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire. And if they can sign him to a reasonable contract extension, it would allow the team to have a decent amount of money left over to make upgrades in other areas of the roster via free agency.

The Knicks anticipate having salary-cap space in the 2012 offseason, though how much still depends on the outcome of the next collective-bargaining agreement.

Until Billups arrived, the belief was that the Knicks would use their cap space in 2012 to target a star point guard such as Chris Paul or, if he doesn’t sign an extension with the Nets, Deron Williams. But the belief within the Knicks’ organization is that Billups, who keeps himself in terrific condition, still can play at a high level well into his late 30s, like Jason Kidd and Steve Nash. Considering that Anthony (26) and Stoudemire (27) are in their prime years with four years left on their respective contracts, the Knicks would be looking to get the most out of Billups until he is 38.

“I believe that we can do some special things with the way this team has been made up,” Billups said last week. “Yeah, we don’t have a lot of time, but I feel that with the talent we have, we can make up for a lot of issues.”

Toney has set right tone

No one has benefited more from Billups’ arrival than Toney Douglas. Ironically, Douglas has benefited from Billups’ absence, too. With Billups out because of a deep thigh bruise, Mike D’Antoni thrust the second-year guard into the starting role in the last six games and has been pleased with how Douglas has handled the challenge.

“He took a little step back when we made the trade because he was doing like a lot of guys were doing and deferring a little bit,” D’Antoni said. “But now he’s playing his game and he’s doing a good job.”

Douglas struggled most of this season to run the offense, but in the six games in which he has started in Billups’ place, he has handled the job quite efficiently. Douglas is averaging 16.8 points and 6.8 assists with 1.8 turnovers per game. He is shooting 57.5 percent from the field and 48.5 percent from three-point range.

D’Antoni, who demands a lot out of his point guards, has been very tough on Douglas, most often during timeouts; the coach can be seen yelling at him about a bad shot or a defensive mistake. Anthony and Stoudemire also get on his case, but Douglas is that type of player who can handle being the sounding board.

“It’s a good thing that he gets on me,” Douglas said of D'Antoni. “It means he expects a lot out of me. I adjust to it real well. I just say, ‘OK, Coach, I got it.’ ” It helps that he also has Billups there as a buffer and a voice in his ear to keep his confidence up.

“I’m glad he’s here,” Douglas said of Billups. “I hate to see him hurt . . . I’m just going to keep learning from him.”

D’Antoni explains Corey-gate

Corey Brewer played Thursday as though he had something to prove to the Knicks, who waived him March 1. But as D’Antoni sees it, Brewer owes the Knicks a debt of gratitude. The Knicks agreed to waive Brewer, D’Antoni said, after the team would not guarantee him immediate playing time. So via his agent, Happy Walters, Brewer requested his release and the Mavericks used their mid-level exception to sign him not only for the rest of this season but also to a three-year, $7-million contract. That means he will avoid free agency in the first year of the new CBA.

“We let him go here because he got a two- or three-year contract and some money and they asked us for him to go,” D’Antoni said. “I thought we did the right thing as an organization, that we couldn’t promise him what he can have there. I think you have to take your hat off to the organization and to Donnie Walsh] for doing the classy thing and let him do it.”

D’Antoni stressed that it wasn’t that the Knicks didn’t think Brewer, whom they acquired from Minnesota as part of the three-team Anthony trade, could play. It was that he wanted immediate rotation minutes and was concerned about his future. The Knicks could have just kept him on the roster and left him on the bench, but his agent, Walters, also represents Stoudemire, and that was a factor.