CHICAGO — Knicks president Steve Mills, finally breaking his recent silence, declined to speculate about trading the third pick in the draft for Pelicans superstar Anthony Davis and said fans should be happy — not sad — about Tuesday’s lottery results.

“We’re excited about where we are,’’ Mills said Friday at the NBA draft combine after keeping quiet since the pingpong balls rolled. “We know we’ll get a good player at 3. So it’s something we’re excited about and look forward to.’’

The Davis sweepstakes appears to be on hold until Pelicans brass can decide whether their star big man is in or out. According to an NBA source, Pelicans general manager David Griffin has not begun collecting new offers because he is still adamant about changing Davis’ mind about wanting out of New Orleans.

According to the source, Griffin still believes he can have as good a Big Three as any team in the NBA next season, with Davis, Zion Williamson and star combo guard Jrue Holiday — especially if Kevin Durant bolts Golden State.

Asked if he would consider trading the third pick, Mills all but brushed off the query.

“We’re here to evaluate the players that are here and we’ll keep moving along in our process,’’ Mills said.

The Knicks’ chances would have been greatly enhanced if an ESPN report that Pelicans owner Gayle Benson told confidants the franchise would trade Davis to the Lakers “over my dead body’’ were true, Benson, however, told a New Orleans radio station the “over my dead body’’ quote is “totally absurd” and “completely untrue.”

There are multiple reports Benson was miffed at Davis’ agent, Rich Paul, for trying to get his client to the Lakers in the middle of the season to join his other client, LeBron James, which caused chaos. The Lakers put together a five-pronged offer that New Orleans turned down in February, but now they have the fourth pick in the draft to dangle after their lottery luck.

Lakers GM Rob Pelinka could be seen schmoozing for several minutes Friday with Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry in what appeared to be a gesture to smooth relations between the franchises.

With Memphis leaning toward taking point guard Ja Morant with the second pick, the Knicks are a virtual certainty to choose Duke swingman RJ Barrett third — unless they are part of a blockbuster deal for Davis. League insiders believe the Knicks likely would have to include the 2021 and 2023 first-round picks they got from Dallas in the Kristaps Porzingis trade, and two of three young prospects among Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson and Frank Ntilikina.

According to a source, the Knicks have Morant as a slight edge over Barrett on their early board, but there’s still more to the draft process such as workouts and more interviews. The Knicks met with Barrett and Morant Wednesday, the day after the lottery.

It’s been a good week for us,’’ Mills said. “As a group, we have a lot of guys here meeting the young players. We probably have interviewed 30 different guys over the course of time here. So it’s been a good productive week for us.’’

The NBA allows 20 formal interviews and the Knicks’ scouting staff performed another 10 or so with more fringe second-round and potential undrafted free agent types.

“We want to build this team the right way,’’ Mills said. “We’ve always said we’re going to continue to work hard during the draft process. We believe we’re a team that can draft well and this is all part of our plan and growing our team.’’

The Knicks also have the 55th pick in the draft and are riding a roll from last season when they selected Robinson with the 36th pick of the second round and signed Allonzo Trier after he went undrafted.

Their biggest need is power forward, so their second-round pick could be a position pick.

They also will look into offers for Ntilikina to see if they can add another early second-round or late first-round pick.

Ntilikina has been a disappointment in his first two seasons and will make $5 million next season.

Moving Ntilikina would give the Knicks plenty of space to enforce the option clauses of Trier and Damyean Dotson without affecting their room for the two max contracts to land Durant and Kyrie Irving, whom many league insiders feel have talked about forming a Knicks tandem.

The caveat is if the Knicks trade for Davis somehow, it could be tricky — though still possible — to still have enough cap space to sign two stars. As Golden State continues its roll to The Finals without injured Durant (calf), that could only mean good things for his eventual departure. The Warriors have never looked happier winning minus Durant.