BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Austin Rivers didn’t know what to think even when his future was supposedly certain.



Rivers had just exited the shower after Friday’s 125-118 loss in Brooklyn, only to learn from a team employee that ESPN had reported the Wizards were trading him to the Suns. The report hit social media mere minutes after the final buzzer. Rivers knew a deal sending him out of Washington was plausible. He didn’t know it was imminent. In a contorted sense, he wasn’t wrong.



He walked slowly to his locker, towel wrapped around his waist, chin digging into his chest as if he were doing a Charlie Brown impression. He muttered something indistinguishable to himself, before venting under his breath and to no one in particular, “Everybody’s wondering what’s going on right now.”



He turned back in the other direction and roamed from his seat, the first locker next to the entrance of the visiting locker room at...