Jimmy Butler knows there are tons of questions about his future with the Miami Heat. He might get traded, he might leave as a free agent next summer, he might exercise a $52.4 million option to return to the Heat or he might get a new contract.

“Who knows?” Butler asked.

Evidently, even he doesn’t have answers.

The Heat forward — who has led the team to a pair of NBA Finals trips in his Miami tenure — spoke out about trade speculation Wednesday, telling reporters after practice that he doesn’t mind his name being in the rumor mill. ESPN reported earlier in the week that the Heat are open to receiving trade offers; that wouldn’t be surprising, given Butler’s contract status and the possibility that he might leave with the Heat getting nothing in return next summer.

“I actually like it,” said Butler, who is averaging 19 points per game this season. “It’s good to be talked about. I don’t think there’s such a thing as bad publicity — to a point.”

Butler’s future in Miami has been a talking point for some time now.

The Heat could have offered an extension last summer and chose not to, presumably for a variety of reasons including Butler’s age — he’s 35 — and the fact that he missed 26% of Miami’s games over his first five seasons with the team.

He still clearly impacts winning: Miami is 8-2 this season when he scores at least 18 points. And the Heat aren’t new to trade speculation; Tyler Herro has been the centerpiece of rumors in each of the last three summers. He is still in Miami, playing at an All-Star level and is the reigning Eastern Conference player of the week.

“Any other narrative, I don’t care. Nobody should because most of this stuff has just been all a bunch of gibberish,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said this week.

Butler said Wednesday that money doesn’t really matter to him at this point. He stopped short of saying that he wants to absolutely remain in Miami — “I’m pretty sure y’all are going to get a report that’s going to say otherwise anyways, so there’s no sense in me answering that question,” he said — and that he’s not fixated on extensions or trades.

“My kids matter, my happiness matters, my well-being matters and my family matters,” Butler said. “Right now, it’s all about competing, staying healthy, playing some great basketball.”

It has been social media fodder for a few days, with some even suggesting that Butler’s hair dye in recent weeks — sometimes yellow, sometimes blue, sometimes red — has matched the teams some of the trade speculation links him to like Golden State, Dallas and Houston.

Hawks rally for quartefinal victory >> Trae Young had 22 points and 11 assists, De’Andre Hunter and Jalen Johnson outplayed the Knicks frontcourt, and the Atlanta Hawks took their surprising NBA Cup run all the way to the semifinals, beating the Knicks 108-100 in New York.

Hunter scored 24 points and Johnson had 21 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists for the Hawks, who were perhaps the surprise team of the tournament after knocking off the defending champion Celtics in Boston and NBA-leading Cleveland Cavaliers in group play to reach the knockout stage as the No. 3 seed in the East.

Now they will face another East power, the top-seeded Bucks, on Saturday in a semifinal matchup.

Josh Hart scored 21 points and Karl-Anthony Towns had 19 points and 19 rebounds for the Knicks, who went 4-0 in group play and shot out to a 12-point lead Wednesday. But as in the 2021 playoffs, it was Young who was celebrating on the floor of Madison Square Garden after eliminating the Knicks.

James is excused from Lakers’ practice >> LeBron James was excused from the Los Angeles Lakers’ practice for personal reasons, coach JJ Redick said.

James sat out of the Lakers’ victory over Portland on Sunday because of left foot soreness, missing his first game of the season. The top scorer in NBA history also was not at the Lakers’ training complex for the first practice during their extended break created by the NBA Cup tournament, but Redick described it as an “excused absence.”

Los Angeles’ next game is Friday at Minnesota, and Redick isn’t sure whether James or fellow starter Austin Reaves will play against the Timberwolves.

“I think both of them it seems like are day to day,” Redick said. “Just kind of wait and see how looks (Thursday), wait and see how it looks Friday.”

James will turn 40 in less than three weeks, and Redick previously indicated that the Lakers would use their current four-day stretch without a game to give rest to the superstar currently in his record-tying 22nd NBA season.

Thunder advance to semifinals >> Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 39 points, and Oklahoma City beat Dallas 118-104 on Tuesday night in an NBA Cup quarterfinal in Oklahoma City.

Jalen Williams scored 18 points and Isaiah Hartenstein added 10 points and 13 rebounds for the Thunder, who will play Wednesday’s Warriors-Rockets winner in a semifinal on Saturday.