Miami Heat acquire a 2024 first-round pick, a 2026 first-round pick (least favorable of OKC, HOU and LAC) and a 2028 first-round pick (via LAC) from the Philadelphia 76ers for Jimmy Butler

Franchise figurehead and team president Pat Riley didn't exactly seem committed to an extension for Jimmy Butler, and a trade sending the five-time All-NBA star away from the Miami Heat would constitute a major reshaping of the franchise.

So...let's go for it.

The Sixers make for a fascinating trade partner, as they can simply take Butler into cap space and send out picks. That assumes the Heat value financial flexibility and assets they can flip more than an actual live body who could help the new Bam Adebayo-led core compete.

Miami might view Butler as the trade chip it could use to secure a high-end replacement from someone else, but it seems at least as feasible for it to collect picks from the Sixers and turn those into the same thing.

Considering one of the concerns Riley listed about the 34-year-old Butler was durability, and in light of Butler's potential to hit free agency via player option in 2025, the Sixers might be able to land him using only their relatively limited draft equity.

The market-busting package of four first-rounders (plus a swap) the Brooklyn Nets got for Kevin Durant, also in his mid-30s, owed at least partly to the remaining four years on KD's deal. Butler doesn't come with that level of locked-down certainty, so a pair of future firsts really isn't that much of a low-ball offer.

The Heat could still project to have over $100 million on the books in 2025-26 between Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Terry Rozier and Duncan Robinson, so this hypothetical Butler deal doesn't clear the decks to any great extent. But it would fundamentally change Miami's identity, add flexibility and give it a shot to reorient itself around Adebayo and a second star acquired in a separate trade.

In the same presser referenced above, Riley also said: "Our organization is not about rebuilding. I'll never use the word. We'll retool as if we're rebuilding to try to make it better. We've always done that."

This trade would put the Heat on path to improve without tearing the whole operation down, and it'd allow them to move off Butler before his value diminishes as he nears free agency. Better to move on from a player a year too soon than a year too late. Meanwhile, the Sixers add a huge name to re(pair) with Joel Embiid in a title chase.

Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@gt_hughes), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.