Andy Miller, agent for Antonio McDyess, warned Knick fans not to count out his client just yet.

Miller won't project when McDyess will return to action and how much he'll participate in training camp that begins with the first veterans' practice Oct. 3. But Miller reports his client's rehab from left knee surgery - done mostly in Houston - is going smoothly.

"Things are going well," said Miller, who spoke to McDyess Thursday. "I don't care about what people are projecting, because 99 percent of times it doesn't come to fruition. All I'll confirm is he's doing well and he's speaking in a positive tone and doesn't have a morbid outlook. His spirits seem very high right now and I just spoke to him."

Quietly, there's been a spike in optimism inside the organization on McDyess' rehab, though the Knicks haven't publicly given an update in more than four months or set a timetable for his return.

Knicks public relations director Joe Favorito said the club would have an update "shortly before training camp begins" on whether McDyess will participate in any team drills, though it seems a longshot he'll play the preseason schedule.

"Personally, I'm extremely optimistic, but I'm not a doctor," Miller said. "Antonio wishes he had all the answers, too. He's frustrated too and wants to know the same answers everyone is asking."

The Knicks haven't had much luck with knee surgeries the past year.

There's a chance that the rehabbing Allan Houston won't be ready, as the team had anticipated, when training camp gets underway on Oct. 3, Houston told The Post yesterday.

Houston underwent arthroscopic surgery on June 10 to remove loose pieces of cartilage from his right knee. The team has said that Houston was expected to be ready well before camp begins.

Houston's slower-than-expected rehab means that the Knicks' two franchise players, Antonio McDyess and Houston, could be spectators, come Day 1 of veteran's camp. McDyess is a longshot to be ready, though the Knicks have not provided an update on his condition in more than four months.

"I don't know, I can't tell you right now," Houston said, offering an obtuse response to the question of whether he'll be ready for the start of camp. "But I'm not going to pull my hair out if I'm not there for the first day of training camp. The thing is, when the team needs me, if it's the second week or the first day, I'll be there."

The good news is that Houston has been in close contact with McDyess, he said, and is more certain than ever the power forward will play this season. McDyess had surgery on April 21 on his left patella - his third knee surgery in 18 months.

The Knicks reportedly have rookie Maciej Lampe, 18, locked up for four years (one more than previously believed) if they wish, The Post has learned. The Knicks negotiated in a team option on a fourth year at the bargain-basement price of $860,000. The complicated four-year deal is worth about $3.5 million.

It was their first game together, so they were feeling each other out. There was apprehension, uneasiness and unfamiliarity.

But there was also Tim Duncan.

Whenever someone made the wrong cut or got caught with the ball in the air, Duncan was there. He was the United States' running, dunking security blanket in the first quarter of yesterday's exhibition game against Puerto Rico, scoring 15 points in the opening nine minutes.

The presence of Duncan is one glaring difference between this squad and the team of N.B.A. stars that finished sixth at last year's world championships. With Duncan's size, skills and savvy, it is hard to imagine the United States doing poorly in the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying tournament, which begins Wednesday in Puerto Rico. Duncan posted game highs of 21 points and 15 rebounds yesterday to lead the United States to a 101-74 victory before 16,473 at Madison Square Garden.

"This guy's the best," Coach Larry Brown said. "Everything our game's supposed to be about, that's what he is."

Duncan is only one reason this team looks ready to redeem the National Basketball Association from last summer's failure. A second quality that is immediately noticeable is the unselfishness of the players. To the surprise of many, Allen Iverson is leading the way in selfless play.

Known as a gunner who has trouble sharing the ball, Iverson has morphed into a Jason Kidd clone. Yesterday, he tied Kidd, his starting backcourt partner, with five assists, and his passing has been nothing short of stunning.

Midway through the first quarter, he tossed a soft pass over a defender into the hands of a sprinting Duncan for a fast-break layup. Later, he lobbed an alley-oop pass from the left wing to Richard Jefferson, who dunked the ball emphatically.

Just as important, Iverson is not forcing his shots. The result was an 11-point performance on 4-of-6 shooting. To those who wondered whether Iverson could adjust to playing with other superstars, he points to his 24 assists in four All-Star Games.

Nick Collison swears he never dissed the Knicks, made fun of New York or alleged that Willis Reed was faking that Game 7 injury. No matter; he still became the target of Garden boo birds yesterday - sort of a walking tribute to Charles Smith.

"They just wanted to see me do something good," said Collison, the SuperSonics rookie. "I struggled early, got caught by surprise on a pass low and I screwed that up and turned one over and they gave me that Bronx cheer. They got me good."

Collison eventually won over the crowd with a nice hustle play, saving a rebound and possession by bouncing it off an opponent. "It was not the type of cheer you wanted," he conceded, smiling. "That was more the, 'Hey, he finally did something' cheer.' "

So did Collison say something to offend New York around draft time? "I don't think so. The Knicks didn't draft me at nine - but that's not my fault."

Maybe two months. Maybe two years. . . . No one seems to be able to pinpoint, or even provide an educated estimate, of when Maciej Lampe might become a regular contributor in the Knicks' universe. But most - including Lampe himself - seem certain it will come.

"It all depends," said the 18-year-old, 7-0 Lampe, taking a break from a summer camp for about 250 kids at Basketball City right before Thursday's blackout.

"I never played in the NBA," he added. "I don't know how good the guys are."

Trust us on this one: They're pretty good.

"I'm just hoping to work hard every day and we'll see. It all depends on how quickly I develop.

"It might take a month or two years . . . you never know," Lampe added, one day after signing a three-year deal worth an estimated $2.88 million, a contract that had to wait until a buyout agreement could be reached concerning his Euroleague pact with Real Madrid. "It all depends on my game. My goal is to learn as much as I can the first year."

Maciej Lampe won't be going back to Europe after all. The 18-year-old rookie forward from Poland is staying in New York.

The Knicks signed Lampe to a three-year deal worth approximately $2.8 million on Wednesday. The amount is far more than what second-round picks normally receive, but it will help Lampe pay his buyout with Real Madrid.

Originally, Lampe's buyout was about $2.1 million. After weeks of negotiations, culminating with Knicks general manager Scott Layden going to Spain to meet with the president of Real Madrid last week, that number was whittled down to roughly $1 million.

Teams can pay $350,000 toward a buyout, so the player must assume the difference. The initial figure in Lampe's deal contributed mightily to him dropping to No. 30 after he was projected to go as high as fifth.

Generally, second-round choices make the league minimum - which is $367,000 for this season - and what 7-foot-6 Slavko Vranes received from the Knicks. But the Knicks see tremendous potential in the 7-foot Lampe.

New York Knickerbockers President and General Manager Scott Layden announced today that second-round draft choice Maciej Lampe had been signed to a contract with the team and released from his contract with Real Madrid in Spain. As per club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The 6-11, 240-pound forward participated in the team?s entries at the Reebok Pro Summer League in Boston, MA and the Reebok Rocky Mountain Revue in Salt Lake City, UT this past July. In 11 total games, Lampe averaged a team-leading 12.9 points per game and 4.8 rebounds and was named to the All-Revue team in Utah.

Lampe, 18, became the 30th overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft and had been playing professionally in Europe for the past two seasons with Real Madrid and Real Madrid II in the Spanish League and Universidad Complutense in the Swedish League.

The Knicks announced their eight-game preseason schedule yesterday, with their opener at Washington's MCI Center Oct. 7. But it seems a longshot Antonio McDyess will suit up for any of them.

If his rehab goes according to last time, McDyess would be due his all-important CAT-scan on the six-month anniversary of his latest knee surgery. That would not be until Oct. 22.

The Knicks only let McDyess do light shooting before his April CAT-scan. If that CAT-scan had shown proper healing, McDyess was to be cleared - no-holds barred. But it showed the healing was not complete, which forced another surgery, his third in 18 months.

The new structure of training camp also will not benefit McDyess. In a change this year, players with less than three years experience must report Sept. 28 while veterans won't practice until Oct. 3. With the opener just four days after that, the Knicks decided against going to their Charleston training camp home this October but could return the following year, according to a team executive.

The extra short double- sessions of camp make it virtually impossible for McDyess to be in shape for the Oct. 7 opener even if somehow he is ready to practice in early October, which seems unlikely.

The Knicks have still not set a timetable for his return as he rehabs his left knee in Houston, but GM Scott Layden has guaranteed he will play this season. The Knicks will take every precaution since McDyess cracked his knee cap in the third preseason game last October - one year after his first surgery.

Ex-Knick Mark Jackson, an unsigned free agent, would like to wait another year before pursuing his NBA coaching and GM dreams.
But he proved to some reporters he will make a good personnel man in the final stages of the 2002 season.

Jackson, then the Knicks' starting point guard, seemed to know his stuff better than most GMs who didn't consider power forward Amare Stoudemire a high lottery pick.

After watching Stoudemire play the Garden in a high-school All-Star contest, Jackson began whispering in the locker room that, if Stoudemire were available for them at No. 7, the Knicks would be crazy not to grab him.

The Knicks passed on the eventual Rookie of the Year and traded the pick along with Jackson and Marcus Camby in the failed Antonio McDyess blockbuster.

But Jackson thinks Knick GM Scott Layden may have gotten it right in showing "guts" two weeks ago when he dealt fan favorite Latrell Sprewell for Keith Van Horn - a deal ripped by fans and media.