Trevor Ariza and his camp want a trade to Lakers, but Suns still trying to deal him to Wizards

The Los Angeles Lakers lost the bidding war for Trevor Ariza to the Washington Wizards on Friday, or so they thought.

Due to a confusion of which “Brooks” the Phoenix Suns were getting from the Memphis Grizzlies in the deal — no, seriously, that’s what happened — the reported three-team deal fell flat on its face. Now, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Lakers are trying to get back into the mix for the 33-year-old:

Several other teams were already pushing the Suns to get back involved in a deal for Ariza, including the Lakers and Houston Rockets, league sources said.

However, because Suns owner Robert Sarver is the absolute worst and doesn’t want Ariza in a Lakers jersey, he’s still trying to negotiate a trade with the Wizards centered around Ariza, even though — according to multiple reporters — Ariza and his camp want him back in Los Angeles:

Ariza and his agent, Aaron Mintz of CAA, had hoped that the Lakers could complete a deal with the Suns, but that became more difficult to navigate in recent days, league sources said. Phoenix owner Robert Sarver became more sensitive about doing a deal with the Lakers in wake of the criticism that came with allowing center Tyson Chandler to get a contract buyout to join the Lakers last month, sources said. The Lakers had been eager to make a deal for Ariza.

Imagine not caring about your players and their wishes because you can’t swallow your pride? Couldn’t be the Lakers.

There is an alternative to all of this, though, but it would involve Sarver being a sensible human being. It also wouldn’t include multiple players with the same last names, just to make things easy on Phoenix since somehow that’s an issue.

What if the Wizards could get the wing they covet while offloading Austin Rivers, who was at the center of the original deal? Consider the following trade:

LAL get: Trevor Ariza

WAS get: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

PHX get: Austin Rivers

The Suns would get Rivers, who they’re apparently high enough on to accept back in a trade, the Wizards would get Caldwell-Pope, a younger wing to fill the hole left by Rivers, and the Lakers would get Ariza. Best of all, it all checks out in the trade machine!

Will Sarver re-think his stance on sending Ariza home to L.A.? Probably not, but in the holiday spirit, let’s hope a miracle happens. If the Grinch can feel empathy, so can Sarver (probably).

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