The Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns and Washington Wizards stalled a trade agreement on Friday once the Grizzlies’ and Suns’ front offices experienced an absurdly unusual mix up.
To review: the agreed-upon trade would have sent Trevor Ariza from the Suns to the Wizards. Austin Rivers would also go from the Wizards to the Suns. Then, the Wizards would have sent Kelly Oubre to the Grizzlies. But from that point, the deal got significantly more complicated.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Grizzlies agreed to send two “role players” to Phoenix as well. (For what it’s worth: there would’ve been second-rounders flying around and exchanged between the three teams as well.)
Wojnarowski originally reported that the Memphis role players were Dillon Brooks and Wayne Selden to the Suns. But Wojnarowski then corrected himself, noting it was not the 22-year-old wing but rather his 29-year-old teammate MarShon Brooks.
The Daily Memphian’s Chris Herrington confirmed that MarShon was the Brooks included. This made more sense for the Grizzlies considering that he is a journeyman who spent time overseas and is more of a fill-in trade piece.
Dillon, however, is in just his second year in the league and has shown flashes of potential since he was selected in the second round of the 2018 NBA Draft. It would be unusual for the front office to give up on him so early into his career, but it makes sense why Phoenix would want him.
But when Arizona-based reporter John Gambadoro said that it was Dillon, not MarShon, folks following the story were understandably confused. Memphis has two players named Brooks on their roster and it was utterly unclear who was being traded.
Plenty of people joked on Twitter that the front offices were probably confused, too. But it turns out that this is actually what happened, according to reports.
Gambadoro noted that Phoenix would not have agreed to the deal if they knew it was for MarShon. Wojnarowski then reported that the front office in Memphis would not include Dillon.
In fact, it is possible that the Grizzlies and the Suns never even spoke directly about a trade and it was just communicated through the Wizards. The teams realized the mistake before a trade call officially occurred.
Washington is insisting that Dillon was mentioned, while Memphis is insisting that they specified it was MarShon who would be dealt.
