NEW YORK -- George Karl is the coach of the Sacramento Kings, not the president of the New York Knicks.

But if Karl had Phil Jackson’s job, he would surround Carmelo Anthony with an elite point guard.

“I would go get a great point guard and then find some good big guys. I think you have a stud scorer [in Anthony] -- get me a brain, get me a quarterback and then fill in the pieces with maybe second-tier big guys,” Karl said in an interview with ESPN New York on Tuesday morning. “The efficiency of big men in this league, there’s only about five or six of them.”

Karl, who coached Anthony for parts of seven seasons in Denver, says that, in his experience, Anthony is at his best when paired with a strong point guard.

Melo and Coach Karl had success in Denver together. Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images

“We had the most success when we had Andre [Miller] and/or Chauncey [Billups] -- when we had a point guard that kind of orchestrated the rhythm of the offense,” Karl said. “And I just think, I’ve said for two years now, I think the NBA is a lot like the NFL. You get a quarterback and a good coach and you win games. And then the other pieces, you figure it out. I think Melo is still top three, top four, top five. I don’t know, some people put him in the top three. I personally wouldn’t put him in the top three. If he has a good orchestrator, he’s going to be a helluva scorer for you.”

Karl also believes that Anthony can have success in the triangle, but he will need to sacrifice a bit to do so.

"Carmelo is a very bright basketball IQ guy, so the triangle is going to be different for him. I think it can enhance some of his skills and I think he’s going to have sacrifice some of his commitment to playing the way maybe he’s played in the past," Karl said. "But I’ve never seen that resentment there. I think people at times harshly judged Melo because a scorer at times does look selfish. But I can’t complain. Melo helped the Denver Nuggets when I was with them win 50 games consistently."

Karl’s theory about pairing Anthony with a point guard raises an interesting question about the Knicks’ plans for free agency: Should Phil Jackson & Co. go after an elite point guard, like Goran Dragic or Rajon Rondo? Or should they go after strong two-way players such as Draymond Green, Wes Matthews and Jimmy Butler? What about trying to sign a top-tier big man such as Marc Gasol or Greg Monroe?

For what it’s worth, Jackson’s championship teams in Los Angeles and Chicago never had what most NBA observers would consider a ball-dominant point guard.

This summer’s free agency, of course, is key for Jackson.

New York is expected to have at least $25 million in cap space to spend in free agency. The club is also projected to have a top pick in June’s draft. So Jackson and the organization hope to build -- or start to build -- the foundation of a contending team this summer.

The idea for Jackson and the front office is to build around Anthony, who is coming off major knee surgery and has four years left on his $124 million contract.

Karl said Tuesday that he believes it's possible to build a winner around the 30-year-old Anthony. That’s a bit of a departure from the tone Karl has taken in the past on Anthony; after Carmelo’s ugly divorce in Denver, Karl was critical of his former star. More recently, in his work as an NBA analyst for ESPN, Karl questioned whether Anthony was a fit for Jackson’s offense. He also wondered whether Anthony understood how to properly approach his job as a team’s best player.

On Tuesday, Karl said there was no question the Knicks could build a winner around Anthony. The key, Karl said, is to make sure Anthony doesn’t feel the need to be as ball dominant as he has in the past.

“We were a 50-win team because of Melo, and [the Knicks] were a 50-win team here at least one year. So that’s a sarcastic criticism of a guy that can score and at times looks a little bit selfish,” Karl said when asked if it is difficult to build a winner around Anthony. “Melo knows how to play basketball. He’s very aware of the aspects of defense and rebounding and passing. It’s just his forte, probably his passion, is to score. But he knows how to play, so if you put a team [around him] that he has to be a little less dominant [with], I think you’ll find that he’ll be very, very ready for it and very happy to have it.”

While playing for Karl, Anthony and the Nuggets won 60 percent of their regular-season games (an average of 50 wins per season). They advanced past the first round of the playoffs just once.

Karl touched on a few other Knicks-related topics Tuesday:

How will Phil handle the future? “I think we all know that he’s a very bright man. Very basketball-savvy, intelligent," Karl said. "He made the triangle work when no one else has ever made the triangle work.

“I expect him to come up with a formula. And I’m sure he’s analyzing and studying the league -- to what’s going to work in the next four or five years. The league has changed. It’s getting to be a guard-oriented league a little bit. It’s getting to be a 3-point shooting league a little bit. I know the East is a little bit different, but the 3-point line has had a tremendous effect, and actually the last time the Knicks were good [in 2012-13], they were a tremendous 3-point-shooting team.

“So I’m sure he’s analyzing, and then what can you get [in free agency]? I still think the Garden has a mystique to it. ... I don’t know, maybe the younger generation doesn’t have the attraction and the love as the older guys do, but it’s still a very fun place to come to and to win in.”

Can the triangle work in today's NBA? “I’m a believer that anything can work in this league; you’ve just got to make a commitment to it," Karl said. "You’ve just got to get players that want to commit to it. I think the Knicks are in a stage where they can get the talent and then figure out what the philosophy of the team is going to be.

“[The success of the offense also depends on] the talent of the player. The triangle was kind of an equal opportunity offense, and nowadays the post-up game is just not as efficient as the outside game. And even the teams that posted up, they were usually low-scoring teams. So you’ve got to have a balance. ... A lot of offense that we run in the NBA has pieces of the triangle, just not the beginning concepts of the triangle.”

Are you surprised how far the Knicks have fallen since 2012-13?

"Yeah, I can’t deny that. Two years ago they were a 54-win team," Karl said. "To fall this fast, this quickly, is definitely a surprise to me. I didn’t see it coming. And then it came it came faster than I thought it was going to happen."

Question: Do you agree with Karl? Should the Knicks go after a point guard to pair with Anthony?