What leak of Kevin Durant's preferred teams tells us

Last February, the Suns surprised Durant by nearly trading him to the Golden State Warriors. After Durant made it clear he wasn't interested in a return to his old team, the Suns decided to work with their star and his business partner, Rich Kleiman, to find a trade.

At the same time, the Suns have insisted they want the best return possible for the 37-year-old Durant. KD's leverage is that his contract is expiring, meaning he might only be a one-year rental for a team unless he agreed to sign a contract extension. That's why the leak of his preferred teams, almost certainly coming from Durant's camp, appears be calculated to scare off a team.

That team may well be the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Wolves are uniquely suited to make a deal with the Suns that will allow them to reload their roster instead of rebuild, since Phoenix traded most of its future draft picks to get Durant and Bradley Beal. Minnesota could build a trade around All-Star forward Julius Randle, who has a player option for next season. They could add a player like Donte DiVincenzo to make the money work, though they might need to involve a third team due to trade rules.

Shams Charania's "league sources" said the Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat were Durant's ideal destinations. But since Durant and Kleiman have been meeting with the Suns regularly in the past week, clearly Phoenix is aware of his desires. The only reason to go public is to scare off a team outside of those three. It probably won't work.

If Durant was close to being traded to a team like the Spurs or Heat, he could have simply remained silent and waited for the deal. Since he didn't, we should probably expect the 14-time All-Star to go somewhere besides Houston, San Antonio or South Beach.