All of the people involved in this Jimmy Butler business are prideful, and justifiably so.

Pat Riley has been on — either as a player, assistant coach, head coach or top executive — nine NBA championship teams. And teams of which he has been a part have made 19 NBA finals. There have been only 78 finals in league history. That means Riles’ teams have been in a quarter of ’em. Almost three decades after he came to Miami, his Heat organization remains, as he is, relentless and obsessed with winning, led by a coach in Erik Spoelstra whose tough love brand earns nothing but respect and accolades from players around the league.

Butler has earned everything he’s gotten in the NBA, coming from Tomball, Texas, to become one of the game’s great clutch players, a postseason force unlike most who have ever laced ’em up. To mix sports metaphors, Jimmy Butler rakes in the playoffs. And if the Heat, who seem to have stabilized themselves after a rough start, make another postseason, a healthy Jimmy Butler would likely rake, again.

But, the way things are headed, the player and the team seem destined to part ways. Maybe amicably, which is what mom and dad say when they go Splitsville, so as not to upset the kids. But divorced, nonetheless. Whether it comes during the season or next summer, with the 35-year-old Butler holding a player option at $52 million for the 2025-26 season, we seem to be moving toward that inevitability, with the backdrop of last season, when both sides seemed to be chafing one another, still fresh in the mind.

Unless … the Heat come to the table with the two-year, $113 million extension Butler has wanted for the last year. Which is not likely.

At the very least, the Heat are indeed seriously listening for the first time to trade offers for Butler, league sources said. Nothing has approached a serious offer yet, but even being willing to listen marks a change in where the team was when Butler almost willed them to a championship in 2023, before Miami was overwhelmed by Nikola Jokić and the Denver Nuggets in five games.

But Miami’s sober about its current state.

In 2023, Miami was a Play-In team that got hot at just the right time. Last season, it was … a Play-In team, that got smoked by Boston in the first round, with Butler sidelined by a sprained knee. This season, the Heat seems to have found something with Butler and Haywood Highsmith flanking Bam Adebayo in the back of Miami’s defense. But no one thinks Miami is on Boston’s level right now. And the whole point of Patrick James Riley’s professional life is to compete for championships, not the eight seed.

So if moving Butler brings back players that give Miami more of a shot, the Heat will engage. That likely means taking back players, rather than a deal featuring a bunch of future picks. Riles doesn’t do rebuilds. (Plus, he’s going to be 80 in March.)

They’re not there yet. But, they’re listening.

Butler is listening, too. He hasn’t asked to be traded from Miami, but if he stays, he wants the max.

He took to heart Riley’s admonitions after the Boston series, when he called Butler out for an appearance on a podcast in which he said if he’d been healthy, Miami would have beaten either the Celtics or New York in a first-round series.

“If you’re not on the court playing against Boston, or on the court playing against the New York Knicks, you should keep your mouth shut, in your criticism of those teams,” Riley fired back.

So, Butler came to camp in even better shape than usual, and is averaging nearly 32 minutes per game, though he missed four games early in the season with ankle issues. He’s shooting 55 percent from the floor in 18 games, which would be a career best if it held up all season. He’s still drawing fouls, taking more than seven free throws per game. He believes he’s proving his worth on the court, and is setting himself up to play next season for big dollars. Could be Miami; could be elsewhere. It’s not that he’s ambivalent; all things being equal, he’d prefer to stay.

But … see above. And he does get that Miami has to find out what it could get for him, and that it could go either way.

Along those lines, don’t discount the possibility that Miami is not just trying to gauge the trade market for Butler, but also what it would cost to bring him back if/when he opts out.

No one other than Brooklyn would have the cap space to take Butler in via that route next summer. That’s not a likely destination for Butler, who wants to play for rings. So Miami’s play, if it wants to make a deal, would be the sign-and-trade route. Finding out what Butler’s market is now will also help the Heat determine whether to offer him, say, a free agent deal more like what the LA Clippers gave James Harden (two years, $70 million), rather than what the Philadelphia 76ers wound up giving Paul George (four years, $212 million).

Just how deep is a potential trade market for Butler? One could certainly form by the trade deadline as teams get more desperate to add a difference-maker for the stretch run. This is especially true out West, where Denver and Minnesota are flailing to regain their old form, whether because of injuries to key players (the Nuggets) or just a kind of malaise that has settled over the team (the Timberwolves). New Orleans, flat on its back at 5-21, certainly has to reassess its roster, and exactly whom it can put around Zion Williamson and Dejounte Murray going forward.

But the realities of the second apron, and the massive penalties it triggers for teams that exceed it, make a blockbuster deal for someone of Butler’s talent, age and price tag incredibly difficult to pull off.

Minnesota’s already gone blockbuster this year with the Karl-Anthony Towns trade, and is still trying to figure out how Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo fit best in the Wolves’ rotation. As our Sam Amick detailed Friday, the surging Rockets, heading to the NBA Cup semifinals this weekend in Las Vegas on the strength of an already-formidable defense, are a long shot to get into the Butler Sweepstakes.

Golden State has been linked to Butler, but Miami would have to think an Andrew Wiggins-based package, which would also likely have to include the now-out-for-the-season De’Anthony Melton, gets them closer to games in June than standing pat (no pun intended) with Jimmy Buckets. That’s a doubtful premise.

Dallas is turning the ball over too much right now to be comfortable, but the Mavericks are still a top-four team in the West, and are top 10 in defensive rating. They also have multiple alphas capable of taking over games offensively — Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving — with a third in Klay Thompson who’s no stranger to postseason heroics. So they don’t necessarily need another scorer, though they struggled mightily at times during the finals series with Boston last June to put the ball in the basket consistently. (And, as Spotrac’s Kevin Smith notes, acquiring Butler would require the Mavs to jump through considerable second-apron hoops to fill out their roster afterward, needing to send multiple players/contracts to the Heat just to make a Butler deal work.)

New Orleans wants to move Brandon Ingram, to be sure. But you wouldn’t trade for Butler if you weren’t going to keep him, which means the Pelicans would have to come correct with an extension. And that would make the Pels, whose four-year, $112 million extension for Trey Murphy III kicks in next year, really, really expensive. They aren’t interested in being really, really expensive.

Phoenix has been bandied as a potential destination, as well. And, sure, the Suns are in win-yesterday mode. Having Butler on the floor with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker would make Phoenix that much more formidable, and Mike Budenholzer certainly could figure out ways to employ Butler’s defensive chops to maximum impact at the other end.

But a trade between Miami and the Suns would have to involve Bradley Beal waiving his no-trade clause to facilitate a deal, allowing Phoenix to make a relatively clean swap with Miami for Butler. As Beal chose the Suns over the Heat in the first place in 2023, when the Wizards had the framework of a deal in place with Miami to send him there, it’s hard to see him now wanting to go the other way, even if the Eastern Conference is decidedly less treacherous to navigate than the Western Conference. Beal chose Phoenix over Miami, in part, because it was much closer to his wife’s extended family in California.

Sacramento is certainly underachieving, at .500 through 26 games and currently out of the Play-In round. But even if interested, the Kings would have to know that they could re-sign Butler next summer. With the Kings already at the first apron hard cap, going further to keep Butler, while De’Aaron Fox creeps ever closer to unrestricted free agency, would seem to be a non-starter.

Pride goeth before a fall, it says in Proverbs. The best solution for Jimmy Butler and Pat Riley and the Miami Heat might just be for everyone to swallow their collective pride, make a deal everyone can live with, and play it out on South Beach.

(Photo: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)

UCLA coach Cori Close challenged her Bruins to remember the style of play that helped them become the No. 1 ranked team in the country.

“We wanted to be the pretty team instead of the gritty team,” Close said after her team’s uneven performance during a 73-62 win over Washington.

It was a call to action for the Bruins (10-0), who responded in dominant fashion, securing a decisive 102-51 win over Long Beach State (5-4) at the Walter Pyramid on Saturday.

UCLA forced 26 turnovers and recorded 14 steals, converting those takeaways into 34 points. The Bruins also dominated the boards, out-rebounding Long Beach State 51-22.

With the win, Close became the all-time winningest coach in program history, earning her 297th victory to surpass Billie Moore (296-181).

Early on, the Bruins played with a heightened intensity, diving on the floor for loose balls and applying relentless full-court defensive pressure.

Long Beach State struggled to find answers offensively and was thoroughly outmatched, scoring its fewest points in a game this season.

UCLA center Lauren Betts, who had a seven-inch height advantage over Long Beach State’s frontcourt, recorded her seventh double-double of the season, finishing with 22 points and 10 rebounds.

Angela Dugalic delivered a near-perfect performance and career high in points to lead UCLA, finishing with 22 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Dugalic was efficient, scoring both in the paint and from beyond the arc.

She started seven for seven from the field and two for two from three, nearly outscoring the Beach singlehandedly with 16 points in the first half.

As a team, the Bruins scored 66 points down low.

UCLA’s Janiah Barker and Gabriela Jaquez also finished with double-figure scoring. Barker scored 19 points on 9-of-10 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds, recording her third double-double of the season. Jaquez matched a season-high with 17 points.

UCLA controlled the game from the outset, outscoring Long Beach State 49-20 by halftime, forcing 17 turnovers and holding the Beach to 24% shooting from the field.

The Beach never got into an offensive rhythm, shooting a season-low 36% from the field.

Despite the dominant win, the Bruins struggled with wasted possessions, leaving Close visibly displeased at times on the sidelines. UCLA, which averages 14.6 turnovers per game, nearly matched that total by halftime with 13.

Errant passes and miscommunication resulted in 19 turnovers.

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By Chandler Rome, Ken Rosenthal, Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney

DALLAS — The Houston Astros traded outfielder Kyle Tucker to the Chicago Cubs on Friday afternoon, completing a frenzied 72 hours for two clubs confronting a crossroads.

The Astros will receive a package that includes infielder Isaac Paredes, right-hander Hayden Wesneski and infield prospect Cam Smith, league sources told The Athletic.

For a Cubs team that was in desperate need of a star, Tucker answers one of the biggest questions facing the organization since trading away the World Series core at the 2021 trade deadline. Working within ownership’s parameters, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer has hesitated to pay free-agent prices for the biggest names in recent offseasons, falling well short when the Los Angeles Dodgers landed Shohei Ohtani last winter and not even entering the Juan Soto bidding war won by the New York Mets.

Tucker is projected to earn a $15.8 million salary this winter — his last as an arbitration-eligible player. Tucker will turn 28 in January and, next winter, should command a massive payday in the wake of Soto’s $765 million contract with the Mets.

Among all major-league outfielders, only Soto, Aaron Judge and Mookie Betts have accumulated more wins above replacement than Tucker since 2020. A fractured shin cost Tucker 79 games last season, but he still managed to produce 4.7 bWAR and a 181 OPS+ across 339 plate appearances.

Trading Tucker is a departure from Houston’s standard operating procedure during this decade of dominance, but payroll bloated by misallocated money coupled with a fallow farm system all but forced third-year general manager Dana Brown to make Tucker available.

That Houston owner Jim Crane has never guaranteed a player more than $151 million must’ve factored into the discussion, too. In the wake of Soto’s contract, Tucker could receive a free-agent deal next winter worth at least $400 million.

For the Cubs, this is the next level of a more transactional, data-driven strategy under Hoyer, who’s entering the final season of the five-year contract he signed when he replaced Theo Epstein.

The Cubs acquired Paredes less than five months ago from the Tampa Bay Rays, giving up Christopher Morel and two young pitchers. The Astros had heavy interest in Paredes during the trade deadline and, according to one major-league source, “finished second” to the Cubs in bidding.

At that trade deadline, the Cubs did not operate as traditional buyers or sellers, taking a blended approach to adding and subtracting major-league talent while trying to build for the future.

That evolving philosophy had led the Cubs to Wesneski, a pitcher targeted at the 2022 trade deadline for his potential upside as a starter. The Cubs swapped Scott Effross, a sidearm reliever under long-term control, for Wesneski, an upper-level prospect in the New York Yankees’ farm system.

Wesneski, who grew up in the Houston area, didn’t quite put it all together at Wrigley Field, but he has been an effective major-league swingman and could benefit from a change of scenery.

The Cubs selected Smith out of Florida State in the first round of this year’s draft, adding him to their growing group of top-100 prospects. That gradual accumulation of young talent opened new possibilities and encouraged a deliberate front office to make a blockbuster win-now trade.

But despite paying a hefty price, Hoyer now has an offensive centerpiece. It’s a group with solid — but not spectacular — talent. Surrounding Tucker with the likes of Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki — along with Nico Hoerner and Dansby Swanson — extends a lineup that lacked the type of player that opponents have to game plan around. Tucker’s presence will elevate the rest of the group and help bring some stability to a lineup that too often went in deep funks.

The price to acquire Tucker was hefty — especially for a player who’s only one season away from free agency — but he changes the dynamic of this Cubs offense. Since 2020, only nine players have topped Tucker’s 143 wRC+ during that span. Since 2010, only Anthony Rizzo or Kris Bryant have put up a season of 140 wRC+ or greater in a Cubs uniform.

Tucker also is an all-around threat as a strong baserunner and a Gold Glove winner in right field. He has extensive postseason experience, having played in 64 playoff games and helping the Astros win the 2022 World Series.

The Cubs expect Tucker to help them get back to October baseball at Wrigley Field.

Required reading

(Photo: Tim Warner / Getty Images)