The Miami Heat have no plans to trade Jimmy Butler, team president Pat Riley said Thursday.
"We usually don't comment on rumors, but all this speculation has become a distraction to the team and is not fair to the players and coaches. Therefore, we will make it clear -- we are not trading Jimmy Butler," he said in a statement.
Riley's statement comes a day after league sources told ESPN's Shams Charania that six-time All-Star Butler prefers a trade out of Miami ahead of the Feb. 6 deadline. Butler is open to trade destinations such as the Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets, league sources told Charania.
The Heat play in Orlando on Thursday. Butler did not fly with the team to Orlando on Wednesday night and has been ruled out for the game due to return to competition conditioning. He twisted an ankle in Miami's loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday. He missed the remainder of that game and the next two Heat games -- at the Orlando Magic on Saturday and against the Brooklyn Nets on Monday -- but with illness, not the ankle, cited as the reason.
"You have to compartmentalize in this business," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Thursday at the team's morning shootaround in Orlando. "We want Jimmy here. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it. And it's just unfortunate that you have to control or deal with a lot of the noise on the outside."
Butler is making $49 million on his contract with the Heat for this season and has a $52 million player option for 2025-26 after the two sides failed to reach an extension last summer. Butler intends to decline his 2025-26 player option and become a free agent in July, sources told Charania.
"I actually like it," Butler said earlier this month when asked about being linked to trade talks and speculation. "It's good to be talked about. I don't think there's such a thing as bad publicity -- to a point."
Butler, 35, is averaging 18.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.9 assists this season. He is one of the NBA's elite competitors and a perennial postseason performer. His teams have made the playoffs in 12 of his first 13 seasons, including the five previous seasons in Miami, where he has led the Heat to two NBA Finals berths and one additional Eastern Conference finals appearance.
The Heat (14-13) are currently in sixth place in the Eastern Conference.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.