The Miami Heat have a midseason mess, as after two trips to the NBA Finals and another to the Eastern Conference Finals in Jimmy Butler’s five years, they refused to give the aging forward a golden parachute near the end of his career.

The Miami Dolphins are once again in disarray at the end of the season and haven’t won anything in years, giving them another opportunity to do business. They pay anyone with age or injury questions — Tua Tagovailoa, Jalen Ramsey, Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle as recently as last summer — with premium contracts, even if it’s unnecessary.

Can you tell the difference between the best-run franchise of the last three decades in South Florida and one in trouble? How does a strong leader like Heat president Pat Riley chart the hard course for his franchise’s future while the Dolphins’ shaky leadership too often does the easiest thing and not what’s best for the organization?

Riley could have done it the Dolphins way. He could have extended Butler’s contract, which is worth $48.8 million this season, and everything would be fine today. That’s all this is about.

We live in a time where everything is measured by the size of a contract, and Riley could have reined in the 35-year-old Butler in a way that would limit the Heat’s future to winning. The hardest thing in sports for a front officer is navigating an aging star. Riley has been through it before with Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade.

Now it’s at Butler. Riley suspended Butler rather than let him leave the team after a series of childish antics by the veteran. He now has to trade Butler. How this plays out will show whether the Heat can compete for something important any time soon.

As tough as the Heat have it, the Dolphins (8-8) have it even tougher when it comes to winning anything meaningful. They don’t have a culture of winning and don’t even show any idea how to build one. They simply invest more and more in players that they no longer need to invest in.

That didn’t change the win. But, boy, is the locker room happy, even with Sunday’s likely season finale at the New York Jets (4-12). This late period is the time of year when your best players need to be at their best. So take a look at the Dolphins’ five highest-paid players in order:

* Hill. He remains a talent, if not the talent of the last two years, for whatever reason. He’s approaching age 31, but the Dolphins were kind enough to extend his contract last summer for three years for $90 million ($59 million guaranteed).

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* Tackle Terron Armstead. He will likely miss another game on Sunday due to injury. At 33, it could be the end of a good career. He’s great when he plays. He also had missed 30 percent of his career games when the Dolphins signed him to a five-year, $75 million contract in 2022. The health issues continue as he has played eight, 10 and now 13 games for the Dolphins in recent years.

* Tagovailoa. He will miss the second must-win game in a row because of a hip injury. He will have played 11 of the 17 games this season. Questions about his health go hand in hand with those about his performance in a fifth season. The Dolphins knew these questions and signed him last summer to a four-year, $212 million contract extension that begins next season.

* Waddle. He is expected to play on Sunday after missing last week’s game. He plays most games even when something is physically wrong. He is also the seventh-highest paid receiver in the NFL this season while also being a team’s No. 2 career receiver.

*Ramsey. A top player and a good “chess piece,” as defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver said. He got a big deal when the Dolphins traded him in 2023. That obviously wasn’t enough. Although there are still two years left on the contract, the contract was extended last summer to five years, $72 million ($24 million guaranteed), making Ramsey the league’s highest-paid cornerback at 30 years old.

So here’s Butler’s real problem: The Dolphins’ management team doesn’t run the Heat. Butler would then have gotten his big money. It wouldn’t necessarily be good for winning or what’s best for the organization. But Butler would be happy.

As things stand, Riley has a problem with cleaning up. The Heat have already done this, winning three titles and reaching four other NBA Finals in the last two decades. Now let’s see if they can do that hard work again.

Meanwhile, the Dolphins hardly have any internal problems. You just don’t win anything. The only way they can reach the final playoff spot on Sunday is if they beat the Jets and a Kansas City team with its best players beats Denver.

So it looks like the Dolphins will have a 24th straight season without a playoff win. There are many reasons why this happened. One is playing out in front of us. See how a top franchise across town performs when faced with a difficult decision with an experienced name. Then look at the easy way out the Dolphins keep taking.