Isiah Thomas and team “capologist” Frank Murphy were holed up in the Knick president’s Penn Plaza office yesterday, doors shut, waiting on a miracle.

With the NBA trade deadline at 3 p.m. today, the Knicks fielded a number of calls yesterday, and Thomas listened hard as teams tried prying away veterans Kurt Thomas and Nazr Mohammed, according to sources.

But with Isiah Thomas’ goal of obtaining either a younger or a more athletic player, along with a draft pick, the offers he got were easily dismissed. Most offers featured players with long-term contracts.

As the deadline nears, odds are strong that, with the recent change in philosophy, Thomas will wait to summer before restocking the reeling Knicks.

Thomas had been adamant he would not make a deal to boost a playoff push, was not going to trade one of his younger players such as Trevor Ariza, and was not willing to take on more future payroll in the form of long-term deals.

“You can’t have a short-term fix for three, four months to put you in a hole three, four years,” Thomas said recently. “In the past, it’s always been patchwork.”

So it appears Thomas stands pat today and will wait until season’s end to start his coaching search that will begin with Phil Jackson.

Then Isiah will dive head first into his likely lottery pick, in the running for 7-foot Australian center Andrew Bogut, and attack July’s free agency with a vengeance when young free agents such as Kwame Brown, Tyson Chandler, Vladimir Radmanovic, Eddy Curry and Michael Redd hit the market.

Thomas will be armed with his mid-level exception and $40 million worth of contracts that expire after next season, including Tim Thomas, Penny Hardaway, Moochie Norris and Vin Baker. Like he did with Jamal Crawford, Isiah hopes to parlay those good contracts into sign-and-trades.

Veterans Antoine Walker and Toronto’s Donyell Marshall, also available at today’s deadline, also are free-agent possibilities, but Thomas has no means to acquire them now.

The Raptors were looking for draft picks in a Marshall deal. Thomas is not allowed to trade his first-round pick.

The Knicks were not in the running for Chris Webber before last night’s Webber-to-Philly blockbuster. Contrary to an erroneous report, Thomas never had a single conversation with the Kings about Webber, who has an identical contract to Allan Houston’s and is also not the same since microfracture surgery.

Even if this summer the Kings were willing to take Hardaway to save money, it would have been dangerous for Knick owner James Dolan to take on Webber’s pact, which has $40 million left on it.

Dolan may have to pay $53 million in luxury tax this summer on top of his league-leading $103.6 million payroll. And there’s been talk of an even stiffer luxury tax in a new CBA.

In referring indirectly to Webber recently, Thomas said, “We definitely have to make sure we don’t keep repeating the sins of the past and stop rehabbing players who have big contracts and big names that are not as young as they used to be.”

So the days of the Knicks spending recklessly to make a deal appear over. But Stephon Marbury doesn’t like the idea of relying on the draft. “There’s no dominant college players in college,” he said. “No one’s going to be able to help you next year.”

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