Indecision pays off

Failing to pull trigger on blockbuster deal for Butler could wind up being best long-range move for Heat

The Heat’s Josh Richardson tries to dribble through the Washington Wizards defense during a Nov. 10 game in Miami.

MIAMI – This was the column almost written each of the past seven weeks.

But each time it appeared as if the moment of truth was at hand, that resolution with the Jimmy Butler situation was imminent.

Finally, there is resolution. So now there only is hindsight.

And confusion.

Because if Pat Riley was willing to pull the trigger with Josh Richardson at the start of the process, then how could that Heat equation change over the minuscule sample size of a mere few weeks?

That, as much as anything, as much as the relative benefits and drawbacks of Butler, is what creates the greatest pause here.

Yes, Josh Richardson is trending up, significantly, perhaps more than envisioned, almost as revelation. But you also could take a two-week sample size from just about any player on this roster — Rodney McGruder the latest example — and project something special going forward.

And that’s fine for fans, media, even teammates to get caught up in.

But how can a team decide in September that a player is worth packaging and then the following month classify him — at least in this case — as untouchable?

So should the Heat have made more of an effort, a stronger effort?

Or is there something to be said about establishing and sticking to the plan for a 2020 makeover ( just as there was leading up to 2010)?

The perspective here from that start is that Richardson is the exact type of player/ contract that is coveted in today’s NBA, with this the first season of his four-year, $42 million extension. But that also doesn't mean he, like any other player on this roster, should have been off limits.

Instead, if Richardson were to be dealt, it would need to come with:

A. The ability also to offload salarycap ballast (Dion Waiters, James Johnson, perhaps even Kelly Olynyk) in order to add to the 2020 salary-cap war chest.

B. Or a quality draft pick that could provide its own value contract.

None of the Richardson-Butler permutations with the Timberwolves appeared to offer either.

Then there is the flip side, and the reach for a player with plenty of wear and looking at $40 million salaries in the final two years of an expected five-year, $190 million free-agency contract.

With Butler, that was, well, sort of terrifying.

But if the Heat had mortgaged their future with, say, Richardson and some sort of pick, there would have been no ability to reconsider the merits of retaining Butler during 2019 free agency. The 76ers, by contrast, need be, could walk away from Butler after the season knowing that they have not sacrificed the essence of their future (still with Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and, oh, the Heat's

2021 unprotected first-round pick). And that’s the most challenging aspect of going all-in. If your team is living in the moment, you let the future sort itself out, just as the Heat did with those draft picks forwarded to the Cleveland Cavaliers amid the

2010 LeBron James signing.

But if an in-the-moment acquisition is part of something down the road, then the long view has to be an equal consideration, one that had to be in play with Butler to turn 30 before the start of his next contract.

It is why it would be prudent to temper some of the current trade speculation linking John Wall to the Heat. Why? Well, um, $38 million due next season, $41 million in 2020-21,

$44 million in 2021-22 and a player option for $47 million in 2022-23.

When the choice was Shaquille O'Neal in 2004 or LeBron in 2010, you go all-in.

But Jimmy Butler is not Shaq or LeBron.

And for where the price point is headed with Butler, if two weeks of indecision with Richardson prevented a Butler deal, then there ultimately is something to be said for that hesitancy. HAND-ME-DOWN: QUIET SIDE: ESCAPE CLAUSE: Heat coach Erik Spoelstra might have seemed like the perfect go-to quote to discuss apparent championship fatigue with the Golden State Warriors, having lived through four consecutive visits to the NBA Finals with the Big Three Heat. Instead, he bobbed and weaved during his Wednesday pregame media session at Barclay's Center. “Somebody had to tell me what happened,” Spoelstra said of the Kevin Durant-Draymond Green dustup. “I still hadn’t seen a clip of it. I’m way too immersed right now in what is going on in our locker room.”

CHANGING TIMES: With many in the NBA caught off guard by the league’s updated freedom-of-movement interpretations that have fueled a high-octane, perimeter-based scoring wave, Spoelstra said if you stay around the league long enough, you can expect to experience it all. Noting someday, “It’ll be maybe five 7-footers and it’ll only be playing paint ball. Who knows? But this is what the game is right now. You have to adapt.” That’s “paint ball” as in post play, although the Heat's “Vice Night” uniforms have proven that an extra splash of color couldn't hurt, either.

City Dwyane Wade has missed during his "One Last Dance" retirement tour (barring a playoff series), with the Heat scheduled for only one game in Indiana this season, the one Wade missed Friday night. The next time the Heat will be in a city they only visit once this season will be the Dec. 7-16 trip, when they visit Phoenix, Los Angeles (both Clippers and Lakers), Utah, Memphis and New Orleans.

MICHAEL LAUGHLIN/SUN SENTINEL IN THE LANENEUTRAL STANCE: Even with all the early speculation that it would be Miami Heat or bust for Jimmy Butler, Minnesota Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau insisted there were no ultimatums from the guard who ultimately was dealt to the Philadelphia 76ers. “Jimmy never made that request about specific teams,” said Thibodeau, who also oversees the Timberwolves’ personnel. “What we did was once he made the request, we got a lot of calls from all over the league, which is normal. Then you have to sift through the teams that are serious and then also what fits you. Almost every team in the league made a call regarding Jimmy.”There were ample motivational tools during David Fizdale’s tenure as a Heat assistant coach, including model championship trophies with checkmarks. Now coach of the New York Knicks, Fizdale has introduced an ax to the locker room that he had signed by his players. “My thing to these guys is what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to chop down a big tree,” Fizdale said. “If you're paying attention to if the tree is falling, you’re never going to get that tree down.” But Fizdale also is playing it safe amid these uneven times in New York. “That's why I keep the rubber tip on it,” he told the New York media. “Just in case somebody don’t want to come after me, you know what I mean? Coach handles the playing time, so I might get chopped down or something.”MARKELLE FAULTS: The comparison Monday night at AmericanAirlines Arena was to Charles Barkley’s golf swing, and it was not far off. The difference is 76ers guard Markelle Fultz couldn’t blame his club selection for his free-throw form in the victory over the Heat. It was the rare time a player would have done well to bypass an and-one opportunity. “I mean, every so often you’ll see it,” 76ers coach Brett Brown said of the form that only raises the doubts about Fultz’s future. “Then all of the sudden, he’ll come back and he’ll take rise-up fadeaway jump shots and look like a real sort of fluid type of player, real fluid type of motion in his shot. I hear what you say. And then you go and you see other ones and you wouldn’t have any idea that there’s any problem at all.”Having previously made Heat center Hassan Whiteside a frequent verbal foil, 76ers center Joel Embiid said he decided to play it straight and let his play do the talking during Monday’s victory, as well as afterward. “Playing against every NBA player, I just want to go out and dominate,” Embiid said. It was as if Whiteside wasn't deemed worthy. “I pick and choose,” Embiid said. “I think I’m starting to grow a little bit in the NBA. Like I said before, it’s never personal to me. It's all fun.”