PHOENIX — Koa Peat is staying in the state of Arizona. The Arizona Wildcats forward was the last pick (No. 30) of the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft in a surprise trade-up involving the Phoenix Suns, who spent their 47th overall pick and two future second-round picks to trade with the New York Knicks, who originally acquired the pick from the Dallas Mavericks. Phoenix moved up nearly 20 spots to take Peat, a move that wasn't quite on the Suns' radar until a bit later in the draft process."I think towards the end of last week we started looking at, 'Okay, what could we do to get another young talent into our building?' So looking at different situations in the draft, what assets would we be able to use, and you have to have a threshold for what you would use going into it so you don't get caught up in the moment," Suns GM Brian Gregory said when asked when they felt drafting Peat was a possibility. "I think we do a great job of sitting down Mat Ishbia, [who] always comes in the day before. We sit down, we go over my draft board, we go over all the different players, the evaluation, all the stuff the scouts put together, and we come up with a really good game plan. And then, on Tuesday [the first round], as the day goes on, we meet all day long on that. We're on the phone, we're calling other teams, we're trying to set up situations, and, like I said, we had a couple situations where maybe we were going to get an earlier pick in the mid-20s and those kind of fall through. "And so now you got to pivot to figure out a way to get a pick in the first round, and luckily we were able to do it. When did we find out [the trade was happening]? Right before the 29th pick, and then you got to make a decision, but that decision was based on we knew exactly who we wanted, and if he was available, then we were going to pull the trigger on that, and that's exactly what happened." Peat, initially projected to be a lottery pick before the start of last season, saw his stock drop a bit before the Suns were able to capitalize on a hometown player with an incredibly high floor. Gregory says they didn't initially believe they could get Peat in for a workout. "Because of where we were initially at with the 47th pick, a player of Koa's caliber isn't going to come in for a workout, and so forth. So when we felt we had an opportunity, maybe there was some moves that could be made to get us in a position to draft him, we called him up through his agency and tried to set up a time [to meet], he's right down the street, to come and spend a half hour 45 minutes, an hour with me and [Suns assistant GM] Oronde Taliaferro," Gregory added. "Sitting down and just talking. It wasn't an interview, we showed him around the place and just spent time with him to get to know him, understand what his goals/objectives are for the future, talk about his college experience at Arizona — which he loved. He loved playing for Tommy [Lloyd], loved the team, so that was critical because we are bringing someone into an environment that we think is becoming someplace special, and we want to make sure that we continue to bring in the type of caliber young man and quality player."I always talk about the pathway for development, that's clear. There's no obstacles. That was evident in our time with Koa and obviously evident through all the intel and research that we do."Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow