Amar'e plans team workout if necessary

Carmelo Anthony was joking last Tuesday when he said he was "trying to find'' Amar'e Stoudemire. Truth is, the two Knicks stars have been in touch all summer.

"Maybe I'll see him next week for Fashion Week,'' Anthony said with a laugh after the Melo-Goodman summer league showdown in Baltimore. "But most likely by early October, I'll make it my duty to get guys together.''

The latter part was a hint of plans that, Newsday has learned, involve a two-week workout for locked-out Knicks players.

If the NBA and Players Association can't come to an agreement in time to preserve the regularly scheduled training camp, Stoudemire has organized a minicamp at the IMG Basketball facility in Bradenton, Fla. The camp is scheduled to run from Oct. 19 to Nov. 6.

According to several players, the Knicks' captain sent out emails about the plan to all 10 players under contract for 2011-12, plus draft picks Iman Shumpert (who already is working out at IMG) and Josh Harrellson and a few free agents from the 2010-11 roster. Center Jerome Jordan signed with a team in Slovenia (with an NBA out), so he likely will not be available to attend a workout unless the lockout is resolved.

Anthony, looking muscular and well-conditioned, scored 27 points in the Melo-Goodman game and declared himself "back." He dealt with an elbow injury last season.

And speaking of back, Stoudemire recently said his feels "much better.''

Chauncey Billups, who missed the last three playoff games with a knee injury, was cleared to begin basketball workouts in August and should be ready for camp.

The one question mark is Ronny Turiaf, who broke a finger on his left hand last month while playing for France. He should be cleared to play by the time camp is scheduled to start, though.

League rules, which prohibit contact between team officials and players during the lockout, won't allow coach Mike D'Antoni, newly hired assistant Mike Woodson or any other members of the Knicks' coaching staff to attend these workouts. But it will be interesting to see if Stoudemire and Anthony have a coach on the premises with knowledge of D'Antoni's system to help organize the team through drills.

Or maybe with knowledge of Woodson's defensive philosophy, which is fairly standard. Woodson's teams in Atlanta mostly played man-to-man with zone principles that emphasized help defense. D'Antoni generally preferred to not emphasize help and instead put the onus on the defender to contain his man. If anything, with Woodson's style in place -- and responsibilities clearly outlined -- the Knicks' defense should at least be more organized.

Stoudemire talked in July about organizing a minicamp and initially planned it for August, but with the lack of progress in collective-bargaining talks between the league and the union -- plus Stoudemire's lingering back muscle issue -- the decision was made to delay the plan into September.

Training camp is expected to open Oct. 4, with the Knicks' first preseason game scheduled for Oct. 11 at Philadelphia. Or Stoudemire's minicamp will begin Oct. 19, with no idea when the next real game will be.

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