Jimmy Butler Rumors: Warriors Interested in Heat Star, 'Probably' Made Trade Calls

Even though the Miami Heat have shown no indication they want to trade Jimmy Butler, that hasn't stopped the Golden State Warriors from expressing some level of interest in the six-time All-Star.

Appearing on The TK Show podcast (starts at 15:50 mark), The Athletic's Sam Amick said the Warriors "have interest" in Butler and "probably made a couple calls" to the Heat this summer to test the waters.

Butler's long-term future with the Heat is very much unsettled. Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported in June that Butler intends to play out his existing deal and wouldn't sign an extension with them or any other club if he happened to get traded before being able to exercise his opt-out clause after the 2024-25 season.

That came after Heat president Pat Riley admitted to being unsure about offering Butler a max extension following the team's first-round playoff loss to the Boston Celtics.

"We have not discussed that internally right now," Riley told reporters. "We have to look at making that kind of commitment and when do we do it. We don't have to do it until 2025, actually. But we'll see. We haven't made a decision on it, and we haven't really in earnest discussed it."

There are reasons for the Heat to be concerned about making a significant financial commitment to Butler at this stage of his career. He will turn 35 on Saturday and has missed at least 15 regular-season games in each of the past five seasons.

Butler missed all five games of the playoff series against the Celtics due to an MCL injury. He is eligible to sign for up to two years and $112.9 million on an extension with the Heat, per ESPN's Bobby Marks.

The Warriors are an obvious landing spot for Butler if the Heat decide they want to trade him as they try to maximize their potential for the remaining years of Stephen Curry's prime.

Losing Klay Thompson in free agency took a key offensive playmaker away from head coach Steve Kerr's rotation. Golden State did a good job of bringing in depth pieces like De'Anthony Melton, Kyle Anderson and Buddy Hield to ensure there are shooters around Curry.

Butler is still capable of playing at an All-Star level when healthy. He averaged 20.8 points on 49.9 percent shooting, 5.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game in 60 starts last season.

The Heat will probably want to see what they can get out of Butler playing with Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and Jaime Jaquez Jr. early next season before making any drastic moves.

If things don't get better from the eighth-place showing the Heat had last season, Riley might start exploring trade opportunities for Butler rather than potentially lose him for nothing as a free agent next summer.