Greenburgh, N.Y. ? Whatever “evident progress” is, Knicks coach Isiah Thomas has the full season to show it.

That’s good news for Thomas.

The bad news? His boss hasn’t seen enough of it yet.

“If we end up the season where we are now, in terms of this development, I think we would all be disappointed,” Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan said Tuesday. “I don’t mean in terms of the record, just, I mean, in terms of the execution of the team, the performance of the team.”

Dolan spoke to the media for the first time since June, when he gave Thomas one season as coach to show evident progress with the players he assembled as team president or be out of both jobs. Dolan reiterated that he wouldn’t make any decisions until after the season.

He refused to specify what Thomas must do to demonstrate such progress, and he couldn’t resist taking a few more shots at Larry Brown, whom he fired after one dismal season.

“I’m sorry about last season and about what happened with our coach,” Dolan said. “I’m sorry how it negatively impacted the team. I’m sorry we made a mistake hiring that coach.”

The Knicks were 23-59 last season, so it wouldn’t take much for Thomas to have a better record. And even though the Knicks are only 8-16, a playoff spot isn’t out of the question since they are only 21â2 games out of first place in the woeful Atlantic Division.

“I’m not going to give you today a number, a win-loss record, into the playoffs, etc. on Isiah in determination of what is progress,” Dolan said.