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What's next? Where the East's 1st-round casualties can go from here

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Every year, 29 teams fall short of the ultimate goal, and every year those 29 teams are left asking themselves how they can take the next step.

With the Eastern Conference's first round in the books, here's a look at how the four eliminated teams might go about answering that question:

Indiana Pacers

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For a good while this season, the Pacers loitered in the East's upper crust, making a strong case that they belonged in the company of the elite quartet atop the conference rather than down in the muck with the common playoff hopefuls. Victor Oladipo's injury robbed them of their seat at the table. Though they admirably clung to the No. 3 seed for over a month thereafter, a campaign of stubborn resilience ultimately ended in truly forgettable fashion against the Boston Celtics. Now, president Kevin Pritchard and GM Chad Buchanan face a summer full of questions and hard choices.

More than half the roster is about to hit free agency. Some of those guys - like Tyreke Evans, Wesley Matthews, and Kyle O'Quinn - were one-year rentals who won't be too difficult to replace. Others - like Bojan Bogdanovic, Thaddeus Young, Darren Collison, and Cory Joseph - have been thoroughly embedded in the fabric of the Pacers' identity over the past two seasons.

Bogdanovic has transformed himself from a 3-point specialist into a multi-faceted secondary scorer. Young has, in many ways, been the backbone of the team's swarming defense. Collison has judiciously run a low-turnover offense while shooting the lights out from 3-point range. Joseph has probably been Indiana's best on-ball perimeter defender. But as well as those guys performed as role players, the end of the season exposed their limitations, even before the ugly first-round series against Boston. Not all of them will be back. Odds are the Pacers prioritize Bogdanovic and Young (likely in that order), while looking for an upgrade at point guard over Collison and Joseph.

To take the next step, the Pacers first need Oladipo to return fully healthy from the ruptured quad tendon in his right knee. The lightning-fast All-Star guard was the lifeblood of the team, and without his mismatch-roasting rim runs, open-court opportunism, pull-up shooting, and help-and-recover defense, the rest of its organs failed. But even if they get the same Oladipo back, the Pacers need more shot creation, more off-the-bounce playmaking, and more 3-point shooting around him (though the latter is a matter of scheme as much as personnel). Can they add all that without sabotaging their defensive identity?

The Pacers were reportedly toying with the idea of a Mike Conley trade leading up to this year's deadline, before Oladipo was hurt. They can try to revisit that next season, but because of their free-agent situation, they won't be able to make a deal work in the offseason unless Myles Turner is the big piece going the other way, which wouldn't really make sense for either the Pacers or the Grizzlies.

That leaves Indiana with an interesting quandary. Should the team put its own free agents on the back burner and use its considerable cap space to pursue another available star? (The Pacers won't get in the room with the flashiest names, but what about guys like D'Angelo Russell, Khris Middleton, Tobias Harris, or even Kemba Walker?) Or, should the front office spread its resources out, bring a couple of its guys back, and keep a potential future trade in its back pocket?

Complicating all of this is Domantas Sabonis, maybe the Pacers' second-best player, who's coming up for an extension. Turner, who emerged as an elite rim-protector and All-Defensive candidate this season, got his extension last summer - he'll be making $18 million a year starting in 2019-20 - and it's still unclear if the two can play together effectively. They're both optimized at center, and while they showed this year that they can defend well in tandem, scoring was another matter entirely. (For the pairing to work, Turner would need to become more of a floor spacer than he already is.)

Even if they both settle in around 30 minutes a game each - with 12 minutes of overlap - they're probably never going to share the floor in crunch time. So, do you kick the can down the road to restricted free agency, or extend Sabonis with an eye to trading either him or Turner later?

Again, these are not easy decisions, but having options isn't a bad thing. Bottom line: this team could start to look very different very soon. And as enjoyable as it's been watching it shatter expectations the past two seasons, that might not be such a bad thing. - Joe Wolfond

Brooklyn Nets

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Building a winning culture is a lot easier said than done for the NBA's perennial also-rans, but the Nets have quietly done just that over the last couple seasons. Nearly six years removed from perhaps the most debilitating trade in league history, GM Sean Marks cobbled together a promising mix of youngsters that includes D'Angelo Russell, Caris LeVert, Spencer Dinwiddie, Jarrett Allen, and Rodions Kurucs. Head coach Kenny Atkinson, meanwhile, crafted a system designed to create the best shots in basketball while surrendering the least efficient looks on the other end.

After recovering from an 8-18 start, which included an eight-game losing streak that featured three two-point losses, the pesky Nets recovered to earn 42 wins and the franchise's first playoff berth in four years. Brooklyn didn't have the firepower to hang with the star-laden 76ers in the postseason, but the team is knocking on the door of something special, and could come crashing through it this summer.

This offseason, the Nets can carve out more than $60 million in cap space while still keeping Allen, LeVert, Dinwiddie, Kurucs, and 3-point champion Joe Harris. Meanwhile, the league is set for a summer free-agency bonanza that will see names like Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, Walker, and Jimmy Butler hit the open market. The Nets can woo those free agents with everything New York has to offer. But unlike the Knicks, the Nets can also offer sound management, a brilliant system of play, and a winning young core that features an appealing collection of shooting, defense, and competent guard play.

While the Nets should certainly be considered a potential landing spot for the game's biggest stars, they've also done well to ensure free agency isn't all they're banking on. They possess their own first-round pick for the first time in a half-decade, and have Denver's first-rounder in their pocket, too. Between those assets, internal development, and even a couple of mid-tier free-agent signings, this team should have more than enough to stick in the East playoff mix.

The big question of the offseason for Brooklyn is what to do with Russell, a first-time All-Star and the team MVP who's now set for restricted free agency. The best case for management would be landing the type of alpha superstar - or stars - that makes renouncing Russell easily digestible. If the Nets strike out, the Russell decision becomes dicier. On one hand, he's a high-volume shooter with middling efficiency who doesn't get to the rim much. It might be wiser to let someone else pay him for the career year he just produced. On the other hand, what message might it send to players the Nets covet in the future if the team doesn't reward Russell for his efforts in bringing the franchise back to relevance?

These are tricky waters to navigate, but the fact that Brooklyn even has to sweat a decision like that is a good indicator of how far the team has come over the last year. - Joseph Casciaro

Orlando Magic

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Orlando's offseason questions start with its best player.

Nikola Vucevic had a monster breakout season, and in so doing, he gave the Magic two things they hadn't had since they traded Dwight Howard in 2012: An All-Star and a playoff berth. Alas, when spring rolled around, his form fizzled, and then so did the playoff run.

Vucevic is about to hit the open market, and the fresh memory of his playoff dud could either complicate or simplify Orlando's approach to his free agency. It might make the team think twice about building around a player who can be exposed by top competition, or it might cool his market to the point that bringing him back becomes a no-brainer. (For what it's worth, Magic GM Jeff Weltman said re-signing the 28-year-old is "a priority.") There are worse places to spend money than on a rebound-inhaling low-post scorer with a soft touch, a polished handle, slick passing chops, and a reliable 3-point stroke.

If they do bring Vucevic back, though, the Magic need the roster around him to make more sense. Seeing what he was capable of even with a poorly constructed supporting cast made it easy to dream about what he might do with the right complementary pieces. The team can't keep surrounding him with blah shooters who let opponents aggressively double the post and muck up pick-and-rolls by crashing into the middle from the weak-side wing. (Given the market scarcity, that might necessitate re-signing sharpshooter Terrence Ross, for a start.)

The Magic also need more off-the-dribble playmaking so it's less incumbent on Vucevic to initiate the offense, and so he doesn't have to face so much extra attention. Do they believe Markelle Fultz can fill that role? And if so, is that belief strong enough to pick up his $12.3-million fourth-year team option before the Oct. 31 deadline? D.J. Augustin had a 99th-percentile season by his standards, but having a more qualified pick-and-roll point guard would be awfully nice, too.

This all basically circles back to one central issue, which is that the Magic built a lopsided roster that's gone heavy on frontcourt players. They've used three top-six picks in the last five drafts on Aaron Gordon, Jonathan Isaac, and Mo Bamba. Gordon is a power forward who's been shoehorned onto the wing, Isaac is a four/five with no current path to playing time at center, and Bamba is a pure five - a one-position player who isn't built to coexist with another traditional big such as Vucevic.

If they re-sign Vooch, the Magic won't have the cap space to go after a free-agent point guard, but one of Isaac, Gordon, or Bamba ought to have enough trade value to net them the backcourt piece they're missing. (Gordon is probably the best trade candidate because of his contract and longer track record. They should probably hang onto Isaac, who has enormous defensive upside.) Why not deal from a position of strength to address their position of weakness?

Going that route might compromise the Magic's long-term future, but if their agonizing seven-year rebuild taught us anything, it's that the distant future is unknowable and planning for it is really hard. This team finished with the NBA's eighth-best defensive rating, went 22-9 down the stretch of the regular season, and stole a playoff game in Toronto, one of the league's toughest places to win. Making a push for short-term competitiveness would make a lot of sense. - Wolfond

Detroit Pistons

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The good news? The Pistons returned to the postseason for the first time in three years. Blake Griffin, who enjoyed an All-Star renaissance while embracing Detroit, is locked up through 2022 (player option), while last season's Coach of the Year, Dwane Casey, is also committed long term.

The bad news? By the time next spring rolls around, it will have been 12 years since the Pistons last won a playoff game. The current, capped-out roster is the definition of mediocrity, and the team will once again select in the middle of the draft's first round.

In other words, barring a franchise-altering steal with the No. 15 pick or unexpectedly rapid development from one of Luke Kennard, Bruce Brown, or Thon Maker, there's no reason to believe Detroit will be playing for much more than a couple of home playoff games again in 2019-20. Oh, and Griffin just underwent another knee surgery.

In terms of working with what they have, the Pistons' roster construction leaves so much to be desired. Griffin should continue to thrive as an All-Star point-forward with 3-point range, but center Andre Drummond, for all of his improvements, still doesn't possess the type of offensive power or defensive consistency a man of his size should provide. Reggie Jackson can look like a borderline starting point guard one week, but then look no better than a backup for Ish Smith the next. Beyond that, the Pistons are filled with the type of average rotation talent that is easily replaceable, and not nearly enough shooting to produce an outlier of a season.

Detroit might not fall out of the East's playoff race, but they also have by far the bleakest future of this season's first-round casualties. - Casciaro

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