"Exhilaration had given way to exhaustion by the time the Knicks left the Skidmore College gymnasium for the final time Saturday afternoon. Even Coach Mike D'Antoni showed signs of mental fatigue as he tried to assess his first training camp with the team.

“I’m, what is it, confidently enthusiastic?” D’Antoni said, sounding unsure.

Cautiously optimistic?

“Cautiously optimistic, that’s a good one.”

Enthusiastically confident?

“We’re not quite there yet.”

D’Antoni kept his superlatives in check as the Knicks broke camp here. There were some nice moments, but they survived more than they thrived in their first week of breakneck-paced basketball.

The final 20 minutes were perhaps the sloppiest. Lazy outlet passes were intercepted, shots were off line and just about everyone except Nate Robinson and Chris Duhon looked ready to collapse.

But the Knicks have 24 days to work on their stamina and precision. Their first preseason game is Wednesday in Toronto.

“It’s the first time they’ve ever done it,” said Donnie Walsh, the team president. “I did it in Denver with Doug Moe, and believe me, the first month and a half can look ugly, because they’re throwing the ball all over the place.”

Not much was settled during the initiation process. D’Antoni said he had not decided on his eight or nine rotation players, although he appears to have some strong preferences, based on a week of scrimmages.

Duhon, Jamal Crawford, Quentin Richardson and David Lee ran together in the first unit all week. Jared Jeffries was with them most days, until he broke his left fibula Thursday. Zach Randolph replaced him.

Stephon Marbury, his status still murky, ran almost exclusively with the second unit, often as the shooting guard — a trend that could force a confrontation if it continues. Marbury forcefully declared before camp that he would not accept a bench role.

Robinson and Wilson Chandler also appear to have a solid place in D’Antoni’s rotation, which does not leave much room for anyone else. The Knicks have yet to see Eddy Curry (bacterial infection) or Danilo Gallinari (sore back) play, although both figure to get serious consideration once they are healthy.

No one drew higher praise than Robinson, whom D’Antoni compared favorably to the Phoenix Suns’ Leandro Barbosa. (For those scoring at home, D’Antoni has now compared three Knicks players to Suns counterparts: Robinson to Barbosa, Jeffries to Boris Diaw and Chandler to Shawn Marion. He has yet to identify a Steve Nash or an Amare Stoudemire.)

“He’s scary athletic,” D’Antoni said of Robinson. “Wherever I put him, whatever team I put him on, was the team that was winning.”"