The Knicks have other dicey training-camp issues besides the dark shadow of the rehabbing left knee of Antonio McDyess, whom the club believes can return in November.

A league source said McDyess still has to undergo more tests. He probably will need a final C-scan Oct. 21, the sixth-month anniversary of the last surgery, before being given full clearance to play in intrasquad scrimmages. Though Knicks GM Scott Layden will give an official update in today's State-of-the-Knicks Address, he, too, doesn't know exactly when McDyess will make his debut until he starts scrimmaging.

Here's other pressing Knick issues, as players with three or less years experience reported to Westchester camp yesterday and hold practice today. Veterans join Frank Williams, Mike Sweetney, Maciej Lampe and Slavko Vranes on Friday for the first full team practice.

The Knicks' post-Spree era begins this week devoid of expectations and hope. Any Knicks playoff talk begins and ends with discussion of Antonio McDyess' mending knee.

Players with three years or less experience report to training camp tomorrow, with veterans arriving Thursday. Veterans are banned from the building during rookie camp, unless undergoing rehab.

That McDyess and Allan Houston are allowed inside the Knicks' Westchester practice facility is symbolic of the team's state: likely lottery-bound for a third straight year.

McDyess and Houston are rehabbing from knee surgeries. Houston, who had arthroscopic surgery, is not expected to sufffer lingering implications and could be ready for Friday's initial veteran practice.

The McDyess mystery continues, however. Though his rehab from a third patella surgery in 18 months has gone extremely well, the power forward is not expected to play in the preseason games. He is working out on the court, should be available to do many team drills, and could be ready to suit up early in the season. GM Scott Layden will give a specific timetable during his state of the Knicks address Thursday.

In a poll of five NBA executives, every one uttered the same playoff sentiment about the Knicks: "They have a good chance if Antonio returns." If he doesn't, Keith Van Horn will not carry the club to postseason; nor would have Latrell Sprewell.

Even if McDyess plays his first regular-season game as a Knick in November, what will he look like and how long will it last? One prominent knee specialist said in April that McDyess' situation reeks of Grant Hill's: Both stars have wear-and-tear injuries that probably won't heal fully enough to withstand the rigors of an NBA season.

"It will take time for him to develop confidence in his knee and play with the reckless abandon you need to play with," one GM said.

New York Knicks free-agent forward-center Mark Pope still is contemplating whether to join the Nuggets' free-agent camp or go elsewhere.

If Pope thinks he has a good chance of making Denver's roster, he will come here. ...

There was a time when Pat Riley's name was synonymous with beautiful basketball, when Magic Johnson led the greatest fast break ever, when James Worthy finished with statuesque dunks, when the half-court set was the domain of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's majestic sky hook.

It was the game at its finest, Showtime in Los Angeles, and Riley, with his slicked-back hair and Armani suits, presided over it perfectly as the stylish architect of it all.

But over the past 12 years, Riley beat that image into the ground and buried it, his teams in New York and Miami using a brutal type of thuggery that was palatable only because it produced victories.

Now, after failing to make the playoffs the last two seasons, Riley is ready to revert. When the Miami Heat opens training camp this week, Riley will introduce his team to a poor man's version of Showtime. It will be a crude copy to be sure, but Riley nonetheless plans to run and play pretty again.

The key to Miami's transformation will be two young players the team acquired this off-season, the free agent Lamar Odom and the first-round draft pick Dwyane Wade. Barring injuries or new revelations during training camp, Riley will start Wade and Odom alongside Caron Butler, Eddie Jones and Brian Grant.

That lineup features no true point guard and no true center, just four extremely versatile and athletic players (none smaller than 6 feet 4 inches) and one hardy rebounder in Grant.

The Knicks open training camp in 12 days not knowing if both Antonio McDyess and Allan Houston will be unavailable for the start of preseason practice. The team is positive, however, that Othella Harrington will not be joining it then.
Harrington, who started 64 games last season, will miss most of the preseason and could begin the season on the injured list after it was learned that the veteran forward sprained his right knee on Monday, the Knicks said last night.

Harrington was injured while working out in his hometown of Houston. He was examined by team doctors yesterday in New York and an MRI showed that Harrington sprained his right medial collateral ligament.

Team physician Norman Scott said surgery is not necessary. He said Harrington's rehab will include range-of-motion and strengthening exercises.

The Knicks said Harrington will be sidelined four to six weeks. The Knicks' opener is Oct. 29 against Orlando at the Garden.

There is a 12-year-old boy in Serbia whose 6-foot-11 frame has European scouts beside themselves, itching to sign him to a professional contract. The hope is not that he will one day blossom into a dominant player overseas but that in six or seven years the N.B.A. will come calling, leading to a financial boon worth millions for whatever club has his rights.

Over the past few years, the selling of international players to teams in the National Basketball Association has become big business, and some agents and officials of N.B.A. teams believe it is becoming a big scandal, one in which international clubs are signing teenagers to long-term, relatively low-paying deals, then demanding buyouts worth significantly more than the original contract when they are drafted by an N.B.A. team.

With international players becoming increasingly prominent in the N.B.A. draft and with buyout amounts escalating, there is a growing sense that FIBA, the sport's international governing body, and the N.B.A. should revamp the system. Some American agents likened it to a form of indentured servitude because N.B.A. rules forbid teams to pay more than $350,000 for an overseas buyout, so the player ends up paying the bulk of the money.

"There has to be a committee formed by FIBA, the N.B.A. and all the governing bodies of basketball around the world because it's getting out of hand," said Tony Ronzone, the Detroit Pistons' director of international scouting. "Teams are now seeing the rewards they can get and they're looking for kids younger and younger, 12 and 13 years old, with the intention of signing them to contracts. It hasn't been done yet, but it's coming. It's going to come to a head sooner or later. In two years, something will have to be done."

Two recent situations illustrate Ronzone's point. Maciej Lampe, the Knicks' second-round draft pick from Poland, made about $50,000 last year on a contract with Real Madrid that was to run through 2008. But the buyout clause in the contract was for $2.2 million, though the Knicks were able to whittle it to $900,000.

And last week, Detroit completed a long, complicated negotiation with Hemofarm Vrsac for the rights to Darko Milicic, its first-round pick from Serbia and Montenegro. After telling Milicic's agent, Marc Cornstein, in February that it would take $15 million to buy him out of a nine-year contract that paid Milicic less than $100,000 last season, Hemofarm asked for $8 million to $10 million when approached by the Pistons after the draft.

On Friday, the Pistons signed Milicic to a contract after agreeing to a buyout that was worth $3 million, according to a person briefed on the negotiations.

"It's been quite a roller coaster to get to this day," Joe Dumars, the Pistons' president for basketball operations, said at Friday's news conference.

Earlier, responding to a question sent via e-mail, Dumars said he believed the current system of transferring an international player's rights to the N.B.A. would "have to be addressed."

There is a 12-year-old boy in Serbia whose 6-foot-11 frame has European scouts beside themselves, itching to sign him to a professional contract. The hope is not that he will one day blossom into a dominant player overseas but that in six or seven years the N.B.A. will come calling, leading to a financial boon worth millions for whatever club has his rights.

Over the past few years, the selling of international players to teams in the National Basketball Association has become big business, and some agents and officials of N.B.A. teams believe it is becoming a big scandal, one in which international clubs are signing teenagers to long-term, relatively low-paying deals, then demanding buyouts worth significantly more than the original contract when they are drafted by an N.B.A. team.

With international players becoming increasingly prominent in the N.B.A. draft and with buyout amounts escalating, there is a growing sense that FIBA, the sport's international governing body, and the N.B.A. should revamp the system. Some American agents likened it to a form of indentured servitude because N.B.A. rules forbid teams to pay more than $350,000 for an overseas buyout, so the player ends up paying the bulk of the money.

"There has to be a committee formed by FIBA, the N.B.A. and all the governing bodies of basketball around the world because it's getting out of hand," said Tony Ronzone, the Detroit Pistons' director of international scouting. "Teams are now seeing the rewards they can get and they're looking for kids younger and younger, 12 and 13 years old, with the intention of signing them to contracts. It hasn't been done yet, but it's coming. It's going to come to a head sooner or later. In two years, something will have to be done."

Two recent situations illustrate Ronzone's point. Maciej Lampe, the Knicks' second-round draft pick from Poland, made about $50,000 last year on a contract with Real Madrid that was to run through 2008. But the buyout clause in the contract was for $2.2 million, though the Knicks were able to whittle it to $900,000.

And last week, Detroit completed a long, complicated negotiation with Hemofarm Vrsac for the rights to Darko Milicic, its first-round pick from Serbia and Montenegro. After telling Milicic's agent, Marc Cornstein, in February that it would take $15 million to buy him out of a nine-year contract that paid Milicic less than $100,000 last season, Hemofarm asked for $8 million to $10 million when approached by the Pistons after the draft.

On Friday, the Pistons signed Milicic to a contract after agreeing to a buyout that was worth $3 million, according to a person briefed on the negotiations.

"It's been quite a roller coaster to get to this day," Joe Dumars, the Pistons' president for basketball operations, said at Friday's news conference.

Earlier, responding to a question sent via e-mail, Dumars said he believed the current system of transferring an international player's rights to the N.B.A. would "have to be addressed."

For Nick Van Exel, the Golden State Warriors may be just part of his journey this season, not the final destination.

At the same time, the former Maverick has no intention to force a trade, his agent said Friday and will be in Hawaii next month when the Warriors open camp.

"If he's not traded by then, he'll report," Van Exel's agent, Tony Dutt, said. "In this day and age, you're limited to what you can do. If they can make a move that benefits them and benefits Nick, I would hope they consider it. I understand there's a lot of interest, from what I read and hear out there."

Van Exel was one of the key ingredients in a nine-player trade completed Aug. 18 between the Mavericks and Golden State. In return for Van Exel and four other players, the Mavericks obtained 6-9 forward Antawn Jamison, a career 20 point-a-game scorer, along with Danny Fortson, Jiri Welsch and Chris Mills.

Dutt said Van Exel has not specifically asked to be dealt from Golden State.

"It's more the understanding at this point," Dutt said. "Everybody knows that when you put Nick into a playoff situation, he plays his best ball. I'm not saying Golden State isn't a good team, but the timetables might be different."

Nick Van Exel's crusade to join the Knicks this season could become a reality.

According to a league source, the Knicks and Warriors have discussed a trade that would bring Van Exel to New York and send power forward Kurt Thomas and point guard Charlie Ward to Golden State.

The potential deal makes sense for the Knicks, who have been in the market for an explosive point guard for the past decade. The Knicks also have an abundance of power forwards on their roster, including Antonio McDyess, Keith Van Horn and rookies Mike Sweetney and Maciej Lampe.

The Knicks would prefer to trade either Clarence Weatherspoon or Othella Harrington but have been unable to find any suitors.

Golden State got Van Exel from Dallas last month in a deal that included Antawn Jamison. Van Exel, who thrived in the playoffs last spring, said Wednesday that he would prefer to play for the Knicks.

The New York Knicks still want to upgrade their point guard position and talented lead guard Nick Van Exel still wants to become a Knick. The Knicks' Antonio McDyess and the Timberwolves' Sam Cassell also want Van Exel to join the Knicks.

Van Exel and McDyess, former teammates in Denver, talk about it all the time, Van Exel said. Cassell offered his opinion when he was asked if he was surprised Latrell Sprewell was traded for Keith Van Horn. Cassell replied, "The Knicks need Nick Van Exel right now."

Van Exel went from Dallas to Golden State on Aug. 18, and can't be moved before Oct. 18. It's clear Van Exel doesn't want to stay in Golden State. Knicks' general manager Scott Layden has tried to acquire Van Exel before. So Van Exel continues to hope.

"I would love to play for the Knicks," he said. "I'm hoping. That's all I can do."