MIAMI — It is an adage as old as the NBA, that talent finds a way. The question this season is whether talent comfortably can find a way back — especially when that talent no longer stands as a sole source of success.

With the Atlanta Hawks, the attempts to reintegrate Trae Young back into the mix have been uneven, to say the least.

Next up, in a similar situation, is the question of what might or might not happen with the Heat’s Tyler Herro.

With Young, it was 22 games out with a sprained knee, a brief return, and then more time out with a quad contusion.

With Herro, it was sidelined for the season’s first 17 games due to ankle surgery, a six-game return, and then the toe contusion that has had him out since early December.

In the case of the Hawks, success this season has come with Jalen Johnson as leading man.

With the Heat, it has been with Norman Powell as leading scorer.

At least with Herro’s previous return, there was a 3-3 record.

At the turn of the year, the Hawks were 0-5 with Young in the lineup since his mid-December return, before going out again — with the Young-less Hawks dismantling the Minnesota Timberwolves 126-102 on New Year’s Eve and then defeating the New York Knicks without Young on Friday night.

With a Herro return appearing imminent, Hawks coach Quin Snyder was asked before the Heat’s recent victory in Atlanta over Young and the Hawks about reintegrating a proven scorer into a mix that had changed direction amid such an absence.

He made clear in his response he could not speak, without being close enough to the situation, for the Heat or for Herro.

But he did speak to how his team has dealt with Young being in and out of the lineup.

“A process, that’s what it is,” Snyder said. “And it’s a long runway. Everybody is not going to be acclimated to one another like immediately.”

Snyder snapped his fingers while offering that answer, as if to indicate there are no instant answers in such a process.

“It’s minor adjustments for a lot of guys,” Snyder said. “And there’s a critical mass of things that you’re going through. You just keep working at it.”

On one hand, a team trying to make it work with the reintroduction of an All-Star talent.

On the other, a team that had headed in a different, positive direction in the interim.

“And I think players feel that,” Snyder said of returning to Plan A after an extended period finding a degree of success with Plan B. “And it usually takes time to figure those things out. It’s not formulaic.”

Beyond the absences, there is another common Young-Herro thread, in each case their teams bypassing extension windows in favor of further scrutiny.

In each case, it pushed each closer to free agency.

For Young, free agency could come as soon as this summer, otherwise with a $48.9 million player option for next season.

For Herro, there will be another extension window this summer, with his contract expiring after a $33 million salary in 2026-27.

So extensions bypassed.

Then injuries endured.

Then a degree of success in the interim.

For both Young and Herro, still time enough to remind of the best of times.

With the Hawks, it is not trending well with Young present.

Next up is such judgement for the Heat with Herro.

When it comes to the contract, Heat management already has made its statement by not moving forward with an extension during that October window.

When it comes to the locker room, Heat captain Bam Adebayo said there only will be an embrace.

“I mean, knowing that we’re better with him, I mean, that’s always a plus, right?” Adebayo said this past week. “But it’s always an adjustment.”

One that Adebayo appreciates has to be carefully managed by both teammates and coach Erik Spoelstra.

“Guys’ minutes get mixed up, substitutions have to be different,” Adebayo said. “So from that standpoint, that’s the difficult part, getting the substitutions right, because you want everybody to keep playing.

“But obviously somebody has to lose minutes. And that’s when we have to be men about it, honestly. That’s when Spo has to have those tough conversations with the guys that might get their minutes cut or whatever the case may be.”

IN THE LANE

DECISION TIME: Now a member of the media in his role as NBA analyst for Prime, Heat icon Dwyane Wade said he appreciates the somewhat tiresome waiting game of seeing what Giannis Antetokounmpo wants to do with his Bucks career, and what the Bucks plan to do with Antetokounmpo. “Listen guys, break up or stay together. I don’t like it. As a fan of the game, I don’t like the fact that I don’t know what’s going on every two years in Milwaukee,” Wade said during a studio appearance. “I feel like, ‘Did we fix it? Did we not fix it? Like, what’s up?’ So like either break up or just stay together guys. But ultimately, just let’s do one thing, let’s have one voice. And hopefully that one voice is about whatever you need to do.” No, Wade did not mention the possibility of a potential Antetokounmpo move to the Heat, which has been recurring speculation for years.

PACE PROBLEM: Yes, the NBA has been invigorated by more and more teams playing at pace. But there also is the question of the toll of such pace. For the Heat, that means a Thursday game in Chicago when the Bulls likely will be without sidelined Josh Giddey, Coby White and Zach Collins. And, no, Bulls coach Billy Donovan is not shying from the debate. “I do think it’s a factor,” Donovan said of the pace, with the Heat having scored 143 points in their previous visit to the United Center this season. “One, is that the more possessions there are, the more opportunities for collision, and when you consider contact injuries and certainly the number of minutes and the pace and speed of the game, probably led to some soft tissue issues. So I think that’s a fair statement.”

TRUE LOVE: Kevin Love continues to emerge as a sage, sometimes-contributing presence for the Utah Jazz, just as he had been with the Heat. To put into perspective how much of a complementary component the likely Hall of Famer has become, he acknowledged that after a recent 16-point, 16-rebound effort against the Orlando Magic he did not even know where the postgame interview podium was at the Delta Center. “I think Lyndon B. Johnson was probably in office,” Love quipped of the last time he made a postgame podium appearance. (Love had conducted almost all his postgame Miami media in the Heat locker room.) From Jazz coach Will Hardy, who, at 37 is the same age as Love, there is nothing but respect. “He’s an elite rebounder, and so those things continue to show up,” Hardy said, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. “And then obviously, just kind of his general savvy in his 18th year — he’s gotten a little more familiar with his teammates, and I think his spacing element gives us a different look.”

WAITING GAME: Dealt by the Heat in the offseason along with a second-round pick in a salary dump, Haywood Highsmith remains in limbo with the Brooklyn Nets, yet to play this season as he recovers from a summer knee procedure. The reality is that the Nets potentially could do by the Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline what the Heat couldn’t — offload Highsmith’s attractive $5.6 million expiring contract in exchange for draft compensation. For now, the Nets insist they already have profited by Highsmith’s professionalism. “That leadership is priceless and we’re very happy with him,” Nets coach Jordi Fernandez said, according to the New York Daily News. “He’s been doing great. He’s an extreme pro. He’s the ultimate pro, great example for everybody else.” By rule, the Heat are not allowed to reacquire Highsmith this season unless he first is with another team beyond the Nets.

LAST CHANCE: Having been on two-way contacts with the Heat, New Orleans Pelicans and now Orlando Magic, Jamal Cain appreciates he is on a ticking clock, with the 26-year-old forward in his final season of eligibility for a two-way deal. In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Cain, who went undrafted out of Oakland University before spending 2022-23 and 2023-24 with the Heat, said he appreciates the stakes. “Since I’ve been in the league, I’ve been staying ready,” he said. “I’m always working on my game. I’m always in the gym, so I will always be prepared. Just trying to do whatever it takes to help the team get wins.” A perceived lack of focus led to the Heat’s parting with Cain, with that lesson seemingly since learned. “The normal human behavior is to not be as focused as you should,” he said of minimal expectations of playing time in most games. “That’s one of the hardest things: staying engaged in the game, knowing you probably won’t play.”

NUMBER

80. Players over the franchise’s 38 seasons to score at least 1,000 points with the Heat, with Kel’el Ware becoming that 80th player with his seventh point in Monday night’s victory over the Denver Nuggets.