The Phoenix Suns traded Trevor Ariza to the Washington Wizards on Saturday for Kelly Oubre Jr and Austin Rivers, according to multiple reports. The deal capped a confusing series of events that unfolded Friday night when a proposed three-team trade fell apart over confusion about whether Dillon Brooks or MarShon Brooks would be included.

The trade, as proposed originally, would have sent Ariza from the Suns to the Wizards, Oubre from the Wizards to the Memphis Grizzlies, and Rivers from the Wizards to the Suns. The Grizzlies would have sent Wayne Selden to the Suns. A player named Brooks also was to be involved, but that ended up as the hiccup to the deal. The Suns thought the Grizzlies would be sending them Dillon Brooks. Grizzlies officials thought it was MarShon Brooks they’d be trading.

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“What happened last night was unfathomable. I’ve never experienced this before,” Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace told reporters on Saturday.

When the confusion cleared, and all the sides had figured out the parts to the trade, Memphis wouldn’t trade Dillon Brooks, and the Suns didn’t want to acquire MarShon Brooks. The mixup happened because the Suns and Grizzlies didn’t talk to each other. The Wizards were the conduit of information and the identity of the proper Brooks got lost along the way, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. However, the Suns privately claim that they communicated with the Grizzlies directly and were clear about Dillon Brooks, a claim the Grizzlies flatly deny, Wojnarowski reported.

“That forced me to do something I’ve never done in 30-plus years working in this league with seven teams, is to drag two players out of a locker room and tell them they’ve been traded and then eventually have to come back and tell them, ‘Oh, no, you haven’t been traded,’” Wallace said.

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MarShon Brooks is a 29-year-old journeyman from New Jersey, while Dillon Brooks is a 22-year-old Canadian who started 74 games in his rookie season last year.

The Suns signed Ariza, a 33-year-old swingman, to a one-year, $15m deal over the summer, and with Phoenix at 5-24 and building for the future with youngsters, he became a trade chip.

