No more braids. A few pounds lighter. And a big smile across his face, even as he looked back at last year’s difficult season.

Curry contributed 19.5 points and 7.0 rebounds a game during the 2006-07 season as a member of the Knicks. Adam Pantozzi/MSG Photos

Eddy Curry seems to be a new man.

“Physically and mentally I’m doing well,” he said during the Knicks’ Media Day on Monday. “I can’t even believe this day is here. It kind of came fast, but I’m ready.”

Following a season in which he totaled just 12 minutes in three games due to knee problems that ultimately affected his conditioning, the 6-foot-11 center stuck to an intense workout regimen over the summer and weighed in at a respectable 317 pounds when he arrived in New York two weeks ago. He is clearly in the best shape he’s been in since 2007-08, when he averaged 26 minutes in 59 games.

“I didn’t really have a goal in mind,” Curry said of his offseason workout plan. “I just wanted to keep working out, I wanted to take as much pressure off my knees and I wanted to try to find my rhythm.”

Curry is hoping that he’s found enough rhythm to be able to hold his own when the Knicks begin practice Tuesday in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Last year, he got off to a “nightmare” start to camp when he was hospitalized with a bacterial infection. He was never able to get back on track - until hopefully now.

“I think Eddy has basically worked on his body the whole summer and worked very hard,” Knicks President Donnie Walsh said. “He’s put himself in a position to come into training camp, but he hasn’t played NBA basketball. He hasn’t gone up and down the court at the speed you’ll go even in practice in the NBA. I think it’s going to take him time to get back into the flow. He hasn’t played in an NBA game in one and a half years, so that may take some time.

“But if he does the same thing he’s done this summer, meaning that he worked hard and worked consistently, then I think he could get back to the point when he was a pretty dominate guy in the low post. That’s our hope and I know that’s his hope too.”

Curry will be competing for frontcourt minutes with the newly re-signed David Lee, Al Harrington, Jared Jeffries, newcomer Darko Milicic and rookie Jordan Hill. The way Curry fits into Head Coach Mike D’Antoni’s system is still unknown, but Curry is hoping he gets the opportunity to prove he can still play.

“I got a lot of respect for Coach and I’m really 100 percent, so whatever he decides to do that’s what he decides to do,” Curry said. “As far as my relationship with him goes, I feel like I have a good relationship with him. I think it’s all about me just going out there and asserting myself and just showing him what I can do. He really hasn’t had an opportunity to see me play under his reign. I think that’s the biggest thing for me right now.”

D’Antoni, like most Knicks fans and everyone else in the organization, is anxious and curious to see what the team’s biggest player has to offer.

“I’m rooting for him,” D’Antoni said. “He did spend a lot of time this summer trying to get in shape. These are a couple big years for him.”