When it comes to the never-ending Kevin Durant trade saga - and all the rumors that come with it - one thing we do know for certain is that the Phoenix Suns attempted to trade the 36-year-old to the Golden State Warriors at the deadline. A move that didn't happen, because Durant did not want to go back to his former team in San Francisco.
But according to Sam Amick on the Run It Back podcast, that is not the only potential deal the Suns had in place that would have seen Durant leave The Valley. This came at a time when they were trying to acquire Jimmy Butler so as to go on the kind of run that the Warriors did once they landed him instead, but that doesn't make how this all unfolded any easier to look at.
Suns failed to send Kevin Durant to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
In the podcast, Amick said that "I think the (Minnesota) Timberwolves are confused because in February, the Suns were sending a message to Minnesota that Kevin would be ok going there. They got that intel. Except they then found out that - oh wait, you’re really not talking to Kevin. You don’t actually know how he feels".
That is a dreadful look all the way around, and it goes some way to explaining both how we got to the point we're at now, and why Durant puzzlingly went public - through ESPN Insider Shams Charania - on his desire not to go to Minnesota. That news coming out when it did also likely drove Durant's price down further - one less team interested in him - but that could have been done by design.
Shams: "I'm told Kevin Durant has no desire to be in Minnesota with the Timberwolves"
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) June 16, 2025
No KD-Ant duo anymore pic.twitter.com/4SxnaO3LLc
Perhaps Durant felt put out both that the Suns initially tried to move him "in the dark of night" as Amick put it, and that he was going to go to a team or city that he didn't want to. Which is surprising - because of the franchises still currently interested in his services - the Timberwolves surely represented the best chance for Durant to contend next season.
This is another blow for owner Mat Ishbia, as it once again makes his team look like an amateur show. It was bad enough that their demands for Durant from the San Antonio Spurs were swotted away, being outed as not having a relationship with one of their superstars like this does not bode well for trying to attract guys to come to Phoenix in future.
The fact that this was the Timberwolves makes this even worse. Not only did they sweep Durant and company out of the playoffs back in 2024, they're running a much tighter ship over there as well. If you go back 15 or so years - when they infamously took Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn over Stephen Curry - that would have been unthinkable. Even during the troublesome Robert Sarver era.
Even if the Suns do send Durant wherever they want to at this point, the damage has already been done. Rather than rip the band-aid off and either ship the player off without telling him in February - or even get a deal done quickly this offseason that suited everybody - we're instead stuck in limbo on this one. The Suns' already shaky reputation taking a hit each day that this drags on.
It is also a worrying look into the team's future. Considering this all happened when James Jones was the General Manager - a post Brian Gregory now holds - the coming years could get even worse in Phoenix. Gregory was undoubtedly an Ishbia hire - and if the two of them are aligned on how to run the show - fans should be terrified of the direction of the organization.