Punctuation side-note: I am never sure when and how to use the hyphen in the phrase “sign and trade”.

The rumor has appeared on the usual sites, but here is the post from CSNBayArea.com’s Matt Steinmetz.

The Warriors and Knicks have agreed in principle to a sign-and-trade deal that would send power forward David Lee to Golden State for Anthony Randolph, Ronny Turiaf and Kelenna Azubuike, multiple sources confirmed on Thursday.

I am sure you noticed that Anthony Randolph, another player the Wolves has targeted in trade speculation, is involved with this trade.  While David Lee was not high on my “this guy would change the Wolves” list, he has name recognition and is a double-double player.

But according ESPN’s Chad Ford, the deal is far from done and Lee’s agent is Mark Bartelstein is down-playing the report.

“There are a million things going on right now,” Bartelstein said. “We are still talking to five different teams about different scenarios. David hasn’t made up his mind and nothing has been agreed to. I’m not sure where all of this stuff is coming from.”

Lee had been tied to Golden State since free agency started, but I am surprised by what the Warriors are giving up.  Randolph is a player the Warriors have put a lot of stock in, but what has he done?  Nothing.  Expect dropping 40 points in a summer league game.  Turiaf is an energy with six fouls, and Azubuike had a good season in 08-09.

In Lee, the Warriors get a player the fits the style of offense over everything else, and the Knicks get a young player, Randolph, who still has the potential to be very good and Azubuike’s $3.3M contract comes off the books after this season and Turiaf’s $4.1 the following season.

There’s been rumors of a three-way trade talk between Golden State, Minnesota and the Knicks where Lee winds up with the Timberwolves, Monta Ellis comes to the Knicks and Al Jefferson goes to Golden State. Lee visited Minnesota [Saturday] and it has only $7 million in cap room, meaning he’d want a sign-and-trade.

I have not heard this outside of this New York Post article and then it reported again on ESPN.com.

The Wolves have been shopping Jefferson around the league, but this is the first trade with actual names involved.