MIAMI -- This time a week ago, amid all the anxiety and tension that set the free-agency stage for the Miami Heat, Pat Riley had three simple instructions during a post-draft press conference.

“Everybody just chill a little bit,” was the Heat president’s first piece of advice.

“Wait until July 1,” was Riley’s request that followed.

“Let it play out,” was his final recommendation.

This three-step process is what essentially delivered Dwyane Wade and the Heat from a month of acrimony to a day of accord when the two sides agreed on a one-year, $20 million contract Thursday to keep the franchise pillar in Miami.

At least, until they put everyone through this again in 12 months.

How Wade and the Heat got here shouldn’t be overlooked or quickly dismissed. Some of the residual battle scars will linger. Pride was certainly splattered and egos bruised along the path from where tenuous negotiations stood a month ago to the short-term resolution that truly represents the best and most reasonable outcome for both sides.

This wasn’t just a labor negotiation between aging superstar and streamlining management.

It was absolutely laborious. Fractures were exposed publicly within an organization that prides itself on conducting business as privately and tight-knit as any franchise in the league. It revealed that the three most critical layers of the franchise weren’t in sync. In his interview with the Associated Press after agreeing to the deal, Wade acknowledged that it took a series of meetings with Heat owner Micky Arison and his son, CEO Nick Arison, to reassure how much he was appreciated and needed in Miami.

There was no mention of Riley, apparently, in that part of the discussion. Riley was a middleman here, stuck between an owner who might be forced to spend well into the luxury tax penalty in part to appease a star player who picked the most vulnerable time for both his career and the status of the franchise to be contractually stubborn.

Wade, 33, gets the credibility that comes with securing the biggest single-season payday in his career. The irony is that the $20 million contract he’ll officially sign when the NBA’s free agency moratorium is lifted on July 9 is basically the same $20 million that would have been due right now entering the final year of the original deal he opted out of last summer with two years and $41 million remaining on it.

Riley, 70, gets two things he wanted. His first priority entering free agency was to bring back, largely intact, the core of the team he assembled over different stages last season that never got a chance to play a single minute on the court together because of injuries. But in the span of a week, Riley’s fortuitous roll saw Justise Winslow slip from a top-six projected pick to landing with the Heat at No. 10 in the draft, Luol Deng bypass a likely more lucrative free agency path and opt in for his final season and Goran Dragic accept less than a maximum contract and agree to re-sign for $90 million over five years.

Then came the decision from Wade, who pushed for a hefty long-term deal but ended up with the richer, short-term alternative. With Wade, Dragic, Deng and Winslow now on board, Chris Bosh's expected healthy return from blood clot treatments and Hassan Whiteside's continued development, the Heat believe they have the foundation of at least an Eastern Conference title contender next season.

The only thing Riley wanted other than that was the flexibility to break it all up and retool again with major salary-cap space next summer when Kevin Durant headlines an even deeper free agency class.

It’s a win-win for the Heat, even if some trust was lost behind the scenes.

With Bosh set to earn a team-high $22 million next season, Wade still won’t be the Heat’s highest-paid player. But he’ll land the one-season signature salary he’s never collected before in his 12-year career.

Riley gets a sure-fire contender -- if his stars can stay healthy -- and maintains the long-term roster flexibility.

As a result, the Arisons are literally and figuratively taxed now.

That’s the cost of reaching the only reasonable resolution that would make matters right for Riley and Wade, the two men most responsible for delivering the most lucrative dozen years in franchise history.