The Phoenix Suns began their pursuit of Trevor Ariza at 12:01 Eastern time with a FaceTime call to Ariza on his way back from a wedding. However, they long coveted Ariza before July 1 rolled around.
During the interview process with new head coach Igor Kokoskov, General Manager Ryan McDonough said on Friday that Kokoskov mentioned Ariza was the first name he brought up for possible free agents targets. Not only Kokoskov, but James Jones just recently finished up his NBA career in 2016, admiring Ariza’s team-first mentality from a competitive distance.