Lee has to wait and see about future with Knicks

The headlines after the Knicks' great salary-cap clearance Thursday were about the prospect of signing LeBron James or Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh - or some combination of two of the three marquee free agents - this summer.

But a less noticed story might be David Lee, the Knicks' own soon-to-be free agent, who might have a better chance of sticking around now that the team has removed so many bad contracts.

"Definitely having the extra room is going to help in the end, but at the end of the day, I don't think it's going to come down so much to money as it is to the Knicks deciding what direction they want to go in in the future," Lee said before last night's game against the Thunder.

"And it's also going to have to do with what the top three guys - LeBron, Wade and Bosh - what those guys decide and how quickly they decide where they want to go this summer. For everyone else, it's more of a trickle-down effect."

The Knicks have until June 30 to renounce Lee's Larry Bird rights, wherein teams can exceed the salary cap to sign their own veteran free agents. The Knicks would not be able to sign two of the big three free agents and keep Lee, so he will have to wait and see.

Not that he wants to go anywhere, or that he really wants to think about the cap implications. "To be honest with you, after last summer - and that was restricted [free agency] - I was so exhausted by all the different rules and regulations, I just gave up on it," Lee said. "It's so complicated, it's really difficult."

Giddens looks OK

WEBBOX]

J.R. Giddens was in uniform lastSaturday night and warmed up before the game despite having knee surgery Feb. 2. He didn't play, but he is closer to coming back than initially might have been indicated . . . Mike D'Antoni still is getting to know all the new guys. On Bill Walker: "He's from West Virginia, that's all I know."