http://www.newsday.com/sports/basketball/knicks/ny-spknix0515,0,1616858.story BY ALAN HAHN Leave it to the resourceful David Lee to immediately find the best tutor possible to get an early start on the Mike D'Antoni system. Lee said after he heard D'Antoni had accepted the job as the Knicks' coach, he sent a text message to Steve Nash. The two-time MVP point guard of the Phoenix Suns, who spends most of his offseason at his Greenwich Village flat, replied with a promise to work out with Lee this summer in New York. "This plays perfectly into what I'm trying to do," Lee said of the up-tempo system, which is similar to what he played under Billy Donovan at Florida. "My advantage against other bigs is I'm quicker and faster; I'm never going to be stronger than most of the fours or fives at this level, though I am always trying to get stronger and I will always compete physically. "So I was very excited to see [D'Antoni] took the job here in New York." Lee spoke Wednesday while apartment hunting in Manhattan, a day after D'Antoni was introduced as the third Knicks coach Lee will play for in four years. The turnover has been unsettling, but the timing of the latest change couldn't be better for his game if perhaps not for his wallet. Lee is heading into the final year of his rookie contract and could become a restricted free agent next summer. This is usually the time teams try to lock up their young players so as to avoid having to contend with offer sheets from other teams. Nate Robinson is also heading into his final year before restricted free agency. While Robinson will make $2,020,179 next season, Lee will make $1,788,003, which is the fourth-lowest on the current payroll. By rule the Knicks only need to make one-year commitments to both restricted free agents to keep them, but that only works if no other NBA team attempts to sign the player to an offer sheet. The Knicks obviously have the resources to match any offer, but, considering Donnie Walsh's goal to not compromise his salary-cap situation for the summer of 2010, it is not a given the Knicks will want to make a long-term commitment to either young player. And Lee is well aware of that. "That's up to them," he said. "I can't control that. If that's something they want to do then that's a decision they have to make." It might also create one for Lee, who has repeatedly said he wants to be a Knick for the rest of his career. In fact, Isiah Thomas once said that Lee could be one of those rare NBA players that spends his entire career with the team that drafted him. The arrival of the D'Antoni style -- in which he fits well -- is a bonus. "This makes it more likely that hopefully I'll be with the Knicks and be one of the younger guys they want long-term because of my ability to play well in that system," Lee said. "It looks like, on paper, a match made in heaven for me. It's up to the Knicks." It isn't for everyone on the roster, especially the player who currently starts ahead of Lee at power forward, Zach Randolph. There is little doubt that Walsh will try to move Randolph, who has a hefty contract that maxes out at $17.1 million in 2010-11. That could create room for Lee or it could result in Lee being part of the package to sweeten the deal. Lee couldn't deny that anything is possible right now with the Knicks. "If there's been this many changes at the top of the ladder, you can probably assume there will be some changes at the bottom," Lee said. "What changes I have no idea." --

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