If there is a trade rumor out there, Chris Mills is mentioned. The Knick forward’s name is thrown into every trade package from Latrell Sprewell to Clarence Weatherspoon to George Mikan, but Mills said he’sbeen around too long to let it bother him.

Still a little groggy from a red-eye flight from Los Angeles that arrived Thursday morning, Mills worked out at the informal Knicks practice at Purchase College yesterday, but knows that as soon as the basic agreement is signed, he could be working out in another city.

“There’s always going to be rumors,” he said, “and if it happens like that, then I’ve got to be ready to deal with it. All I’ve got to do is be focused. I’m a professional, about to be 29, I’ve had five years under my belt in the NBA. I feel like whatever comes my way I have to deal with, and I’m going to be ready to roll regardless.”

Although Mills is a California guy, who was a bit stunned by the contrast of going from 70-degree LA weather to the mid-winter horrors of the past few days here, he wants to stay in New York for one reason.

After suffering through a so-so season in which he found it hard to get comfortable with the core group of Knicks, Mills thinks he has a great chance of winning an NBA championship here and now.

“We strongly believe we can take the championship this year,” Mills said. “I feel that because we had a tough one last year and a lot of guys were disappointed and a lot of guys really worked hard this summer and put a lot of effort into getting ready.”

Mills had an up and down season last year, scoring 9.7 points per game and grabbing 5.1 rebounds in 27.3 minutes a game. With all the injuries last year, Mills, who was acquired at the end of last pre-season from the Celtics, was given a larger role. At times, he filled that role nicely; at other times, he disappeared.

Now, with the chance to start at small forward, Mills says he is confident that not having to make an adjustment to a new team things will go better this year.

“It was definitely hard [last year], just coming to a team like New York with a lot of veteran guys, a lot of guys who’ve played together a lot,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to feel like, if you take this shot or that shot, are the guys going to be disappointed in you? But I’ve grown to believe that they have a lot of belief in me. I think I’ll feel a lot more comfortable with the guys.”

Over the summer and during past few months, Mills has been working out at UCLA with a lot of the Lakers, Clippers and guys coming through LA, including Shaquille O’Neal, Grant Hill, Eddie Jones, Don Mclean and Hakeem Olajuwon, to name a few. Mills said it was a good workout and sometimes they had two or three courts running at the same time.

But when Christmas Day rolled around, and he should have been playing against the Bulls at the United Center, that’s when the lockout really stung.

“I should have been playing on national TV,” he said. “Instead I was eating turkey.”

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Marc Fleisher, the agent for Israeli guard Oded Kattash, said he pleaded with Maccabi Tel-Aviv ownership to allow his cleint to come to play for the Knicks, but was unsuccessful. He said Kattash met yesterday with the Maccabi owner, who refused to give his blessing for Kattash to join the Knicks because his team is in desperate shape.

“He made him feel guilty,” Fleisher said.

Both Fleisher and Knick GM Ernie Grunfeld said they will re-visit the issue next season.