The Miami Heat have no plans to trade Jimmy Butler, team president Pat Riley said Thursday.

“We don’t normally comment on rumors, but all this speculation distracts the team and is not fair to the players and coaches. “That’s why we’re making it clear: we are not trading with Jimmy Butler,” he said in a statement.

Riley’s statement comes a day after league sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania that the six-time All-Star Butler would prefer a move away from Miami before the Feb. 6 deadline. According to Charania, Butler is open to trade destinations such as the Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets.

The Heat play in Orlando on Thursday. Butler did not fly with the team to Orlando on Wednesday night and was ruled out for the game due to returning to competitive conditioning. He twisted his ankle in Miami’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday. He missed the rest of that game and the next two Heat games – at the Orlando Magic on Saturday and against the Brooklyn Nets on Monday – but the reason was listed as an illness, not the ankle.

“You have to spread yourself out in this business,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Thursday at the team’s morning shootaround in Orlando. “We want Jimmy here. There are no ifs and buts. And it’s just unfortunate that you have to control or deal with a lot of the outside noise.”

Butler is making $49 million on his contract with the Heat this season and has a $52 million player option for 2025-26 after the two teams failed to reach an extension last summer. Butler intends to decline his player option for 2025-26 and become a free agent in July, sources told Charania.

“I actually like it,” Butler said earlier this month when asked about the connection to trade talks and speculation. “It’s good to be talked about. I don’t think there is such a thing as bad publicity – up 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 consistent postseason performer. His teams have made the playoffs in 12 of his first 13 seasons, including the previous five seasons in Miami, where he led the Heat to two NBA Finals berths and another Eastern Conference Finals appearance.

The Heat (14-13) are currently in sixth place in the Eastern Conference.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.