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Wizards, Suns revive trade sending Trevor Ariza to Washington
After a three-team trade crumbled in spectacular fashion hours earlier, the Washington Wizards resurrected a deal to acquire Phoenix Suns forward Trevor Ariza, league sources told ESPN.
The Wizards are sending forward Kelly Oubre Jr. and guard Austin Rivers to the Suns in the deal, league sources said.
Hours earlier, a three-team trade that included Memphis imploded when the Grizzlies and Suns insisted each had been double-crossed over the insertion of an ancillary player in the deal. The Grizzlies believed the agreement included MarShon Brooks, and the Suns insisted Dillon Brooks was involved, sources said.
Ariza returns to the Wizards, where the organization sees him as an important addition to a fractured locker room -- and a teammate that All-Star point guard John Wall deeply respects. The Wizards were among Ariza's top-tier free-agent considerations in July, but Phoenix's one-year, $15 million offer was too irresistible of a financial score.
In the end, Ariza gets out of the reeling Suns organization and back to a playoff contender in the East. Ultimately, the Wizards believe they have a better chance at affording Ariza on a new deal this summer than Oubre, who will be out of their price range with three max contracts already on the roster.
Ariza, 33, became trade eligible on Saturday. This is the date players signing summer free-agent deals are allowed to be included in trades. The Suns, reeling at 5-24, had been willing to find a deal for Ariza.
Phoenix privately insisted that it had direct conversations with Grizzlies officials on Dillon Brooks -- not MarShon -- which Memphis flatly denied. The Grizzlies insist that they negotiated the deal through Washington general manager Ernie Grunfeld and that there had been a miscommunication to the Suns' Jones on Memphis' assets in the deal. Washington says it believed it was Dillon, not MarShon Brooks.
The Wizards are sending forward Kelly Oubre Jr. and guard Austin Rivers to the Suns in the deal, league sources said.
Hours earlier, a three-team trade that included Memphis imploded when the Grizzlies and Suns insisted each had been double-crossed over the insertion of an ancillary player in the deal. The Grizzlies believed the agreement included MarShon Brooks, and the Suns insisted Dillon Brooks was involved, sources said.
Ariza returns to the Wizards, where the organization sees him as an important addition to a fractured locker room -- and a teammate that All-Star point guard John Wall deeply respects. The Wizards were among Ariza's top-tier free-agent considerations in July, but Phoenix's one-year, $15 million offer was too irresistible of a financial score.
In the end, Ariza gets out of the reeling Suns organization and back to a playoff contender in the East. Ultimately, the Wizards believe they have a better chance at affording Ariza on a new deal this summer than Oubre, who will be out of their price range with three max contracts already on the roster.
Ariza, 33, became trade eligible on Saturday. This is the date players signing summer free-agent deals are allowed to be included in trades. The Suns, reeling at 5-24, had been willing to find a deal for Ariza.
Phoenix privately insisted that it had direct conversations with Grizzlies officials on Dillon Brooks -- not MarShon -- which Memphis flatly denied. The Grizzlies insist that they negotiated the deal through Washington general manager Ernie Grunfeld and that there had been a miscommunication to the Suns' Jones on Memphis' assets in the deal. Washington says it believed it was Dillon, not MarShon Brooks.