When Jimmy Butler chose to join the Miami Heat last summer, he had just come within four bounces (and an overtime period) of the conference finals with the Philadelphia 76ers. As other stars teamed up, he decided to be a lone wolf on a franchise that had missed the playoffs not only in 2019-20, but in three of the five seasons since LeBron James went back to Cleveland. The Heat didn't even have cap space, so Butler had to be signed-and-traded for guard Josh Richardson, one of Miami's most productive and valuable players. 

The popular take was that Butler wanted to be The Guy, and he left Philly because that would never happen with Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons in the same locker room. The more generous reading was that he connected with "Heat culture" and wanted to follow in his friend, former teammate and fellow Marquette alum Dwyane Wade's footsteps. For all of Butler's talk about competitiveness, just about no one suggested that he made the move for basketball reasons.

Seven months later, the Heat are 34-16, fourth in the East and 3 1/2 games ahead of the Sixers in the standings. This week Butler dominated his former team, scoring 38 points on 14 for 20 shooting in a 137-106 rout. Next weekend Butler and avant-garde "center" Bam Adebayo, a shoo-in for All-Defense and a candidate for Most Improved Player, will represent Miami in the All-Star Game. And now, thanks to some creative deal-making, reinforcements are coming.

The Heat have reportedly agreed to acquire Andre Iguodala, Jae Crowder and Solomon Hill from the Memphis Grizzlies, likely without giving up anyone who has played more than 352 minutes this season. They will send Justise Winslow and Dion Waiters to the Grizzlies and James Johnson to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Minnesota will send Gorgui Dieng to Memphis. 

Another way of putting it: In exchange for Winslow, Miami unloaded Waiters' and Johnson's 2020-21 salaries ($12.7 million and $16 million, respectively) and landed Iguodala. It also negotiated a contract extension with Iguodala, worth a reported $15 million next season and $15 million the next. The Heat have a team option on the final season, though, so they can go star-hunting in 2021. 

If you're a salary-cap dork, you're probably blown away that Miami is going to pull this off despite appearing to have no draft picks to trade save for a 2024 second-rounder. You do not need to know what the Stepien rule is, though, to appreciate how the Heat have added to their roster.

The Heat were already one of the league's best stories and potentially dangerous in the playoffs. They have a killer offense, with Butler leading the first unit and sixth man Goran Dragic having his most efficient season since he made All-NBA in Phoenix. Duncan Robinson, dubbed the NBA's most improbable player by the Wall Street Journal's Ben Cohen, has turned into one of the best 3-point shooters alive, while Adebayo does just about everything a basketball player can do aside from shooting 3s. Tyler Herro, a 20-year-old wing drafted No. 13 last June, almost immediately became beloved in Miami and proved himself to be a massive steal. Iguodala, Crowder and Hill do not get in the way of any of these guys; together they address the Heat's weaknesses and augment what they already do well. 

Crowder and Hill are veteran forwards who provide extra defensive versatility. In that department, though, Iguodala is the prize. The Heat's defense has slipped to league-average without Winslow, who has missed most of the season with a back injury, but the prospect of closing games against Iguodala, Butler and Adebayo is the stuff of nightmares for potential playoff opponents. Iguodala is an all-time great defensively, whose track record of guarding star wings is as much a product of his intelligence and anticipation as it is a product of his strength, length and unreal hands. At 36, he will not be able to play 40 minutes of all-world defense like he did in his prime, but as long as he's healthy the Heat are at least capable of being elite on both ends.

Winslow doesn't turn 24 until March, and he's on a team-friendly contract. He can defend every position, and last season played his best basketball of his career when Miami needed him to run the offense. Sacrificing him to get a few vets is a reflection of the organization operating on the 30-year-old Butler's timeline, but it is also eases some on-court tension: Winslow wants the ball in his hands, and it quickly became clear this season that Butler and Dragic would be the Heat's primary ball-handlers, with Adebayo also establishing himself as a facilitator and regularly bringing the ball up the floor. It did not help that, in 11 games, Winslow shot 4 for 21 (19 percent) on catch-and-shoot 3s.

Iguodala can play the point, but he's comfortable off the ball. Last season with the Golden State Warriors, his usage rate was 10.4 percent. What makes this trade remarkable is not just that Miami added playoff-tested talent while increasing its financial flexibility, and it's not just that it did so when it looked like it didn't have the assets to get anything remotely like this done. It's that the Heat have meaningfully improved without disrupting the good thing they've got going on. 

If there is any disappointment in Miami following Thursday's 3 p.m. ET trade deadline, it is that an even bigger move didn't get past the finish line. The Heat were reportedly on the verge of prying Danilo Gallinari away from the Oklahoma City Thunder, but, per Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the trade fell apart when Gallinari wouldn't agree to an extension similar to Iguodala's, which would have allowed Miami could preserve its 2021 cap space.

In the short term, the Heat would have been significantly more dangerous offensively with Gallinari taking the less dynamic Meyers Leonard's place in the starting lineup. For Miami fans who had already started picturing Butler running pick-and-pops with Gallinari, Crowder feels like a downgrade. The front office, however, is always thinking big. It couldn't take itself out of the free-agency game in 2021, not with Giannis Antetokounmpo potentially headlining the class.

Back in July, on a conference call, when Butler was taking heat (sorry!) for his decision, a reporter asked Butler what management had sold him on with respect to the future of the team.

"That it was headed in the right direction," Butler said.

Nobody, not even Butler, could have known how accurate that was.