Stephen A. Smith: Kyrie Irving's 'No. 1 preference' for trade? Minnesota

In the drip-drip-drip of Kyrie Irving trade speculation, one drop caught my ear in particular Tuesday.

No, it wasn't any of the alleged drama between LeBron James and his Cavaliers teammate. Rather, it was a nugget from ESPN's Stephen A. Smith during a radio appearance on Mike & Mike.

We already knew that Irving apparently has four teams he would prefer to be traded to: New York, Miami, San Antonio and Minnesota.

Even fathoming that is still hard.

But Smith went a step further, reporting that those are indeed the four teams Irving would prefer to play for and adding, "and Minnesota is his No. 1 preference." (You can listen to the audio clip here, around the 14:00 mark).

Again, the logistics of such a trade would be complicated (at best), and Smith makes the good point that the Cavaliers can trade him to any team they please (or keep him).

It's also worth wondering how well Irving would fit in with the Wolves given his seeming desire to be a clear No. 1 player on a team. The Wolves already have Karl-Anthony Towns, Jimmy Butler and Andrew Wiggins, and even if one of them was involved in a trade for Irving (Wiggins is the most likely candidate), this is a team that already has some star power.