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 miniscule 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 salary-cap 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 Joe 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.
