MIAMI – Jimmy Butler will show up on Miami Heat media day on Sept. 30 at Kaseya Center as:

— A. Beetlejuice.

— B. Emo Jimmy 2.0 (a 2023 repeat).

— C. Dreadlock Jimmy 2.0 (a 2022 reprise).

— D. As himself, no adornment, sans stylist (seemingly a long shot, considering how Butler knows his media-day photo becomes the one required to be utilized on NBA promotional material the balance of the season).

In the big picture, first impressions certainly can be overstated. The dreadlock look ahead of 2022 training camp set Butler and the Heat on the course (albeit a harrowing one) to the 2023 NBA Finals.

The emo experience last fall led to solid Butler statistics across the board last season, albeit in a limited, injury-curtailed, 60-game sample size.

The bet here is Butler living in the moment, setting up for Option A above, which also could work for coach Erik Spoelstra, therefore able to summon the best of Butler with nothing more than than the triple utterance of, “Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice.”

Abject silliness? Assuredly.

But this time around there also is subtext and context.

This time around the Heat are coming off a humbling first-round ouster at the hands of the Boston Celtics, a series played in the injury absence of Butler. This time around, Butler stands in a potential contract year, with the ability at season’s end to opt out of the final, 2025-26 year on his Heat contract.

Spoelstra and Heat President Pat Riley have made it clear they despise the “noise” that can compromise Heat Culture (their capital letters).

But this time around, it already is about more than a single moment of media-day silliness from Butler, who turned 35 Saturday.

For the past three weeks, reports out of New York have suggested Butler would have interest in joining the Brooklyn Nets at some point.

Curiously, the Nets currently stand as the only team with enough potential cap space next summer to seemingly entice Butler to opt out of the $52.4 million player option he holds with the Heat for 2025-26.

So is there already smoke, even if there isn’t fire?

Or was it as simple as Butler’s annual sneaker pilgrimage to China putting him at the same charity event as Nets owner Joseph Tsai?

There are several ways this could play out, this push-pull of the NBA leverage game.

At one point, in May, the message from Butler’s agent, Bernie Lee, was about the extension window that would open in July.

Then that window opened in July and ... crickets.

As there have been since.

This isn’t a matter of Riley winning, after his May insistence of no need to rush into an extension, with that window open through this coming June.

But soon enough, when the Heat open training camp Oct. 1 at the Baha Mar resort in the Bahamas, the narrative will become omnipresent, if not already.

Then, on Dec. 15, most players signed this offseason will become trade-eligible, opening the door for a potential Heat move.

That door will remain open through the Feb. 6 NBA trading deadline.

One way to quiet speculation, would be for Businessman Butler to show up at media day, full corporate attire, briefcase, thick-rimmed glasses.

It’s also not who Butler has been, able to craft a distinctive image that has had him among the NBA’s leading endorsers even without a championship.

And that’s fine, too.

Nothing is decided on media day beyond what ESPN, ABC and TNT will photographically display of Butler in promoting the Heat’s limited schedule of national broadcasts.

In fact, an argument could be made that more of substance for a franchise is decided during the offseason, an offseason that has seen the Heat sign Alec Burks as their only veteran outside addition (while also losing Caleb Martin in free agency).

As tends to happen in the NBA ether, neither Butler nor Lee have publicly discussed the next contractual step since Butler in early May, during an interview at the Miami Grand Prix, expressed his desire to remain with the Heat the balance of his career.

As someone close to Butler privately expressed earlier this month that for the most part Butler, “won’t be participating in the circus.”

So, yes, possibly a circus on Sept. 30, potentially a Beetlejuice of a moment.

But what happens thereafter is what matters most, be it Michael Keaton-like havoc or box-office (and standings) success.

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