As soon as Gordon Hayward hit "publish" on The Players' Tribune, the reaction in South Florida easily could have been: wait 'til next year.
Only in NBA free agency, there aren't always next years. Salary-cap space comes around only so often.
In the Miami Heat's case this actually was a bonus bite at the apple after behind-the-scenes negotiations between the NBA and players' union allowed the team to spend Chris Bosh's cap space without concern of a possible return to the Heat's luxury tax.
But here's the rub:
With the 2018-19 salary-cap projection at $103 million, the Heat already stand above that figure, well above it, merely by counting the contracts of Hassan Whiteside ($25.4 million), Tyler Johnson ($19.2 million), Goran Dragic ($18.1 million), James Johnson ($14 million), Dion Waiters ($13 million), Kelly Olynyk ($12 million), Justise Winslow ($3.4 million), Bam Adebayo ($3 million) and Josh Richardson ($1.8 million), plus other spare change.
It won't be until 2019-20 when there again could be cap space to play with, an eventuality that even then will come down to how Whiteside, Dragic and Tyler Johnson handle their player options for that season.
So this was not merely the type of one-year stop-gap approach we witnessed a year ago with the limited commitments to Wayne Ellington, James Johnson, Derrick Williams, Waiters, Willie Reed and Luke Babbitt.
This is an actual investment in the future, with two seasons in today's NBA amounting to a long-term commitment.
Yes, trades always are possible when capped, as the Houston Rockets showed with Daryl Morey's deftness with the Chris Paul acquisition.
But these are not bits and pieces that Pat Riley has cobbled together, not the type of expiring deals that Morey peddled to the Los Angeles Clippers. These are tangible, weighty deals for James Johnson, Olynyk and Waiters that even next summer still will have three seasons to run.
This most certainly was not Riley operating with visions of a LeBron James return when the Cleveland Cavaliers forward can become a free agent yet again next summer.
For most teams, this is how free agency is played: You target a summer, limit your long-term exposure, make your move. The Heat did that before the 2010 haul of James, Bosh and Dwyane Wade.
For the Heat, the 2014 gut punch from James leaving and the lingering illness of Bosh continually changed the equation and kept extending the finish line.
This, however, appears to be the finish line, checkered flag, final gun _ however you want to phrase it _ when it comes to the latest enduring Riley roster iteration.
In the 2015 offseason, it was getting Dragic's new contract in order, which, in hindsight, proved prudent from a salary perspective.
In the 2016 offseason, it was the chase for Kevin Durant, perhaps allowing hope to exceed reality.
Last weekend, it was selling culture and commitment, the window dressing of free agency, to Hayward.
Next summer? Perhaps a player or two to chase with a mid-level exception and bi-annual exception.
And that's fine, too. Because sometimes you have to take stock of who you are, grow internally, organically.
Last season's 11-30 start was as much the product of a lack of familiarity as injuries. It takes time to become a team.
So while Riley might move from the free-agent market to the trade market, the commodities at hand are the ones that will define at least two more seasons.
Debate now, if you will, how far this roster can go.
But at least you now know who the Heat are, where they stand. There is no more reaching for an escape hatch of a player who could change it all.
Cap space has left the building.
And it's not returning until the 2019 offseason, at the earliest.
