MIAMI — You start here: It didn’t matter what Damian Lillard wanted.

But you also start here: It did matter what Jimmy Butler wanted.

Because here the Pat Riley and the Miami Heat stand again, at a crossroads of desire and destination, this time with Kevin Durant.

Once again, a player who wants out, but also wants out to a preferred destination.

Once again, a Heat franchise caught in the middle.

In the wake of reports that Durant’s desire of an escape from the turmoil that has been the Phoenix Suns, ESPN is listing the Heat among the three destinations preferred by the 15-time All-Star, along with the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs.

“Those across the NBA have been made aware in recent days that those are the three teams that Durant would commit to long-term,” ESPN reported.

With Lillard, that didn’t matter in the 2023 offseason, when he hatched his plan to depart the Portland Trail Blazers, because of the extension he previously had signed that had him under contract for four more seasons.

He wanted to come to the Heat; he wound up being dealt to the Milwaukee Bucks. There was no risk of the acquiring team shortly thereafter being left emptyhanded.

With Butler, and the Heat’s nightmare in the middle of this past season, it was different. He not only wanted out, but wanted out to a preferred destination.

And he held the hammer, an opt-out clause this offseason that allowed him to dictate terms. The preference was the Suns, the fallback option was the Golden State Warriors. He got the Warriors; the Heat got a return that hardly maximized the traded asset.

And now Durant.

With a hammer — his contract to expire after paying out $54.7 million this coming season, but also eligible to sign a two-year, $112 million extension upon being dealt or a two-year, $124 million extension six months after being dealt.

The Heat are willing to pay that price, as well as the price it would take to acquire a player, at 36, who remains elite offensively, sixth in the league this past season with his 26.6 scoring average. (Tyler Herro led the Heat at 23.9).

But the Heat also are well aware that it requires two (or more) to tango on the trade market, it requires a willing dance partner.

The Trail Blazers refused to engage with Riley. So Lillard went to a rival.

Butler made clear he had no desire to re-up with the Memphis Grizzlies. So Riley lost that option at February’s NBA trading deadline.

Now it’s the Suns, who are angling amid the balancing act of attempting to work with Durant while also resurrecting from a finish a game worse than that Heat’s 37-45.

The Spurs and Rockets can offer the type of package of picks and prospects that the Heat lack. But each of those Texas teams also can take a long view with their youth that might not exactly mesh with a Durant who turns 37 in September.

The Heat are in win-now mode, because for three decades under Riley they’ve always been in win-now mode, often with a future-be-damned approach.

At times, that leads to peril, as the Terry Rozier trade showed, with the Heat still owing a first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets, a pick that limits the draft capital that could be sent out in a Durant trade.

Because of that error — which is the only way to consider it after the fact — prudence now also must be considered, considering that Durant is merely about the short term, to turn 40 at the end of a potential Heat extension.

So multiple first-round picks nonetheless? All the prospects packaged, including the unique length of Kel’el Ware? Expiring money swapped out for Durant’s extended money that would take the Heat out of 2026 free agency and create luxury-tax riddles?

With Lillard, the sense was the Heat were willing to toss in anything and everything short of Bam Adebayo.

With Butler, the sense was the Heat were willing to do anything and everything to make the madness cease.

With Durant, the desperation is somewhat mitigated by awareness that the pool of competition has been whittled, that the player’s wish list matters.

After three consecutive years of play-in basketball, after two years of a single playoff-game victory, after a postseason that against the Cleveland Cavaliers produced the worst playoff-rout in NBA history, the Heat apparently still hold an attraction.

And that changes the looks of things with a future Hall of Famer who stood a summer ago alongside Adebayo and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra on a gold-medal run at the Paris Olympics.

So back at the poker table sits Pat Riley, with a hand to play against a league debating whether to call the bluff of a decorated veteran shooting star.