Knicks fans get to your TV sets and do it now!

After watching two Knicks games in the Las Vegas Summer League, a fan could start whistling “Happy Days Are Here Again.”

In action so far, Nate Robinson has looked like a very good two guard; Renaldo Balkman has rekindled memories of Dave DeBusschere with both his defense and his ability to handle the ball, and rookie forwards Wilson Chandler and Demtris Nichols look as though they should set aside space in their trophy cases for a Rookie of the Year award.

Okay, then before you start imagining the electric echoes of Madison Square Garden during an NBA Finals game, you might want to remember that it’s only summer league and the Knicks’ opponents have been a shadow of whom they will face come November. Seattle, the Knicks’ Monday night opponent, was a mess, with little offensive continuity and few players aside from forwards Jeff Green and Kevin Durant, who will figure in their rotation. The Chinese national team was no great shakes with Yao Ming, and without him, they looked like a oneman band. Yes, the one man is Yi Jianlian, who has looked impressive, but even Shaquille O’Neal couldn’t lift a dreadful Magic team into the playoffs in one year, so Yi alone won’t make the Chinese team into some Asian equivalent of the Spurs.

These vital caveats aside, the Knicks haven’t just looked good in the early going of the summer league, they’ve looked awesome, and some of the positives look like lasting improvement. Against Seattle, Robinson continued to show improved shot selection, passing on the sort of prayers he took all the time as a rookie two seasons ago. Now, even with the clock running down and out of good shooting range, he looked to set up a teammate. Balkman continued to show a good floor game, but his outside shot still needs work. His good shooting percentage is a result of several dunks.

The most pleasant surprise has been the play of the two rookies and relative newcomer Randolph Morris. Chandler, the Knicks’ first-round draft pick, has shown everything he was advertised as. He has played excellent defense with the quickness to close the passing lanes. His length led to several deflections, and he’s been a good on-ball defender. He’s shooting better than expected, 8-for-17 including two treys against the Chinese team, but let’s see how well he knocks them down with folks in his face before fitting him up for a rookie/sophomore challenge uniform during All-Star weekend. My brief impression of Nichols was that he was a ‘tweener (too big for the outside game and not big enough for the interior), but instead he has shown superb perimeter skills, knocking down four of 10 shots from behind the arc and dishing three dimes in minor minutes each night. Morris has looked as though he will be a solid backup for starting center Eddy Curry. The former Kentucky Wildcat standout has averaged 10 points and eight boards in 24 minutes of burn per contest.

Through two games, the Knicks are playing with a surprising amount of cohesion and showing solid fundamentals. Morris is blocking out well, the perimeter players are making extra passes, and the team is spacing the floor properly in the half-court offense. This is far more than the Knicks showed last summer.

It’s unlikely they will continue to play this well when teams’ regular lineups arrive in training camp, but the Knicks are playing well enough to warrant watching them tonight and this weekend for their final summer league games.

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The Seattle game offered me my first glimpse of Durant, and like most others who have seen him play so far this week, I’m underwhelmed. Initial reports came with the reminder that in summer league anything can happen (in his first summer league game as a rookie, Spurs star Tim Duncan was schooled by future journeyman Greg Ostertag), but there seems to be one simple problem with Durant’s game. He doesn’t yet have an NBA body. He’s 6-foot-9- and listed very, very generously as 225 pounds (he doesn’t look like he weighs over 200). Against the Knicks, his struggles were a lack of strength. Balkman defended him and easily pushed him away from his spots. His one rebound per contest (after a year in the Big 12 Conference where he averaged 11 a game) is testimony to his inability to mix it up with the big guys. He will need some time in the weight room so that he can bring to the NBA the full repertoire he displayed last season at the University of Texas.

I think that Durant’s strength issues will lead to a slow start and that in the meantime, we will get hit with a barrage of stories about his rookie teammate, Jeff Green, being a superior rookie. Green has an NBA-ready body at 6-foot-9 and a genuine 235 pounds, and he has a nice inside game along with a soft touch on midrange jumpers.

By dumping both Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis, their two leading scorers from last season, Seattle has guaranteed that the Sam Presti/P.J. Carlesimo era will get off to a slow start, and it’s enough to wonder if the team, which has long been rumored to be moving to Oklahoma City, is trying to pave its way out of town.

mjohnson@nysun.com