SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Heat weren’t able to make quite as sexy a move as they originally hoped before Thursday’s deadline.

Miami did land veteran Andre Iguodala, Jae Crowder and Solomon Hill from Memphis in exchange for Justise Winslow, Dion Waiters and James Johnson. (Johnson was subsequently dealt to Minnesota for Gorgui Dieng, and the Grizzlies are reportedly planning to either buy out or waive Waiters.)

Sure, it would have been nice had the Heat then been able to complete a deal for prolific scoring forward Danilo Gallinari.

But after three years ago, when Pat Riley made bad long-term commitments to multiple players, the Heat didn’t want to go down a similar path.

With Winslow, Johnson and Waiters gone, Goran Dragic and Udonis Haslem are the only players left on the Heat’s roster from their 2016-17 team that went 41-41 and missed the playoffs. That season led to the Heat signing multiple players to long-term deals that proved painful for the franchise.

Now those contracts are gone, and the Heat’s inability to acquire Gallinari does allow them the freedom to make a potentially franchise-changing upgrade in the big free-agent summer of 2021.

The Heat’s trade discussions with the Thunder about Gallinari hit an impasse, according to multiple reports, over a possible contract extension.

ESPN first reported that the Heat offered to sign Gallinari to an extension similar to the one they gave Iguodala — two years with a team option for 2021-22 that would give Miami the ability to decline and preserve enough salary to potentially secure a max-contract player at that point.

Neither Crowder nor Hill are under contract for next season, which will free up salary this summer if Miami wants to sign any other free agents or bring back some of its valuable expiring-contract veterans.

Will Thursday’s deal radically increase the Heat’s chances of bringing home a title this season?

Cleaning The Glass still projects the Heat to win 52 games and finish as the fourth seed in the East, which would earn them a first-round playoff matchup with Philadelphia.

SportsBetting.ag still gives the Heat the sixth-best odds of winning the NBA championship this year, but they now have the second-best odds of winning the East following the trade.

Let’s answer some questions about the Heat’s deal with the Grizzlies and how it could impact the team going forward:

How crazy/creative did the Heat, Riley and Andy Elisburg have to get to make the numbers work?

Not any more than usual despite the Heat being under the hard cap with only a minuscule $12,330 of wiggle room.

The Heat unloaded a combined $40.4 million in salary by sending Waiters, Johnson and Winslow to Memphis (though it actually counts as $41.6 million against the cap due to a bonus in Waiters’ contract). Adding Iguodala ($17.2 million), Crowder ($7.8 million) and Hill ($13.3 million) brings on a combined $38.3 million in salary.

Winslow was set to make $13 million guaranteed next season, matching his salary this season.

Johnson, making $15.3 million this season, had a player option he likely would have exercised for $16 million.

Waiters is set to make $12.65 million next season.

Crowder and Hill are on expiring deals, and Iguodala agreed to a two-year, $30 million contract extension with the Heat that includes a team option for 2021-22, helping Miami’s plans for that summer. The Heat will also be at a point where they may have to pay Bam Adebayo a max contract as well.

Iguodala also could become a trade piece before that summer if he plays well in Miami and stays healthy.

According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, Hill has a $531,614 bonus if he plays 1,000 minutes this season, which the Heat would be responsible for paying. He’s currently at 901.

The Heat are now $3.4 million under the hard cap and, according to Marks, they are $1.98 million over the tax line while their tax bill drops from $6.65 million to $2.98 million following the trade.

Now, Miami could have as much as $27 million in cap room this summer if it was to renounce all its free agents. On the other hand, the franchise will now have the flexibility to re-sign players such as Dragic, who is making $19.2 million on an expiring deal, Meyers Leonard ($11.3 million) or Derrick Jones Jr. ($1.6 million). The team’s cap space could go up to near $40 million if Kelly Olynyk doesn’t exercise his $13.6 million player option for next season.

The Heat could also pursue Gallinari this offseason with their added flexibility.

And they can also be players at the March 1 buyout deadline if they want to sign a player (though they would have to cut someone else to make room on the roster).

Andre Iguodala (9) is a veteran scorer who can also defend on the perimeter against an opposing team’s best wing player. (Nick Turchiaro / USA Today)

Against which teams does this trade help the Heat?

The Heat are 8-3 against the other five teams battling for the top six spots in the Eastern Conference.

Iguodala, who turned 36 on Jan. 28, hasn’t played yet this season.

Although the Heat need as many healthy bodies as they can get right now with Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro and Meyers Leonard sidelined, I would expect them to ease Iguodala into their rotation as he gets acclimated to Miami’s system.

But once he does, in addition to the veteran presence he’ll bring to the Heat’s predominantly young locker room, Iguodala gives Miami another strong perimeter defensive presence alongside Butler.

He would be able to defend most other teams’ primary scorers, which will be a huge help down the stretch against the likes of Ben Simmons, Khris Middleton and others.

Crowder, the 29-year-old from Marquette, is a gritty defensive player who also fits the Heat’s style despite not being a great outside shooter.

Crowder may be able to help on the perimeter, too, where he has held opposing guards to 31.2 percent shooting from 3-point range. The Raptors (37.4) and Pacers (37.1) both rank in the top five in the league from behind the arc.

Hill, who averaged 5.7 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 18.8 minutes over 48 games for Memphis, gives Miami another defensive option and some relief for Adebayo in the paint against foes like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid.

According to NBA Advanced Stats, Hill is shooting 41.9 percent (36 of 86) from 3-point range when he is defended by forwards. He has held his counterparts to 34.4 percent from that distance, although opponents he is matched up against are shooting 51.9 percent overall.

Why didn’t Winslow fit anymore?

Winslow, the Heat’s 2015 first-round pick out of Duke, missed a combined 137 games due to injury over his five seasons in Miami.

But there was more to it.

According to Ethan Skolnick of the Five Reasons Sports Network, there was an ongoing disconnect between the Heat and Winslow over the severity of the back injury that has limited him to only 11 games so far this season.

Winslow’s injury was diagnosed as a lower-back bone bruise.

View this post on Instagram MEANT TO BE #GRITandGRIND @sdlncreative A post shared by Justise Winslow (@iamjustise) on Feb 6, 2020 at 12:07am PST

In mid-January, the Heat said Winslow would miss two weeks and be reevaluated. But after that timetable passed, Miami had not announced any new timeframe for a possible return to the court.

Winslow, who also missed most of his second season in the league due to shoulder surgery, turns 24 next month and is both a quality defender and an additional point guard option. But there were doubts as to whether the Heat were ever going to see him develop into the player they hoped.

Where does this move rank among Riley’s greatest trade hits?

It would have been much better had they nabbed Gallinari.

This clearly doesn’t have the star power of Shaquille O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning or Tim Hardaway. Those were team-changers.

But reshaping their cap space for the short and long term has the potential to allow for a bigger move within the next two years and perhaps one more sustained run of championship contention under Riley’s watch.

In the short term, it depends largely on whether Iguodala is still good enough to make an impact at both ends of the floor.

Why not continue to build through the draft? Why doesn’t Riley seem to care about draft capital after strong recent picks like Adebayo, Tyler Herro and Josh Richardson?

Because Riley is 74, this team is fourth in the East and he believes he can contend right now. Riley doesn’t build through drafts. He goes for it when he has a chance.

And the Heat still have their first-rounder in this upcoming draft (barring a deal on draft night), so they’ll continue to get better where they can.

(Top photo of, left to right, Dion Waiters, James Johnson and Justise Winslow: David Santiago / Miami Herald / Tribune News Service via Getty Images)