What's Next for Eliminated NBA Teams

 Before I get into it, I need to take a moment to congratulate the Leafs and the real Leafs fans out there (not the bandwagon fans like me) who finally closed out the Senators last night to get to the second round. I don't know much about hockey, but I thought they played a really tough gritty game, especially in the 3rd period. People tell me that the Florida Panthers will be a much tougher series, to that I say Leafs in 5 baby lets goooooo!

The first round is winding down with the Cavs, Celtics, Pacers, Knicks, Timberwolves and Thunder all already moving on. We've got a big game 7 between the Nuggets and Clippers Saturday and the Warriors and Rockets are heading into game 6 tonight, so we'll ignore those teams for now. I thought I'd look at the teams who were eliminated in the first round so far and talk about what comes next. I'll at least cover the ones who I find most interesting, there will be plenty of time for more eulogies later. Anyway, lets get into it. 

Milwaukee Bucks

This is one of the teams I am most interested in following this off season. After losing to the Pacers in a pretty dramatic and tight 5 game series, the Bucks future looks like it might be pretty bleak. To start, Giannis Antetokounmpo was ridiculous in this series, he did everything he possibly could and showed the world why he still has an argument for best player in the world. Giannis averaged 33.0 points, 15.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists in the 5 games on 65.1% true shooting, which doesn't even sound real. The Pacers, who are a good team, had literally no answers for Giannis the entire 5 games and yet, the Bucks still lost in 5. Damian Lillard suffered a torn Achilles early in the series, a really tough blow for a fan favorite player that's going to most likely hold him out for the entirety of next season. With that in mind, if the team stands as it is today, they will be going into next season with an out of this world MVP candidate in Giannis teamed up with a cast of players that wins maybe 15 games together without him. They don't have their own first round pick until 2031 and building through the draft isn't an option for this team. In short, the Bucks are cooked and now is probably the time to blow it up to preserve any kind of future.  

Blow it up. That's a tough pill to swallow, especially when that means trading an MVP candidate, face of your franchise, champion and top 20 player all time. To be clear, this only actually happens if Giannis asks for it. If Giannis is ok with being a 45 win team that ducks out in the first round just to stay loyal to Milwaukee, I say you let him. You only get a player of this caliber maybe once in a generation, the Raptors had a guy like that for literally 1 season of their entire existence and we would've killed to keep him around. If you're the Bucks though, it probably is best if he does ask for a trade so you can refill the prospect cupboard. There are currently 0 young Bucks players that I would project to have anything other than a bench level role player impact on a winning team. Trading Giannis likely gets you a young player or two and a bunch of draft picks that can help make the team relevant again. Either way, trading your franchise player is almost certainly going to result in some years of pain. As for where he's going to go? I'll save that for another post in the off season, but I'm sure almost every team in the league will be sniffing around. If they don't trade Giannis, the Bucks are capped out for next season and won't be able to sign anyone to anything other than a mid level exception. While they might be able to get someone decently helpful with that, we're talking the Dennis Schroeder range of player, not really a big needle mover. They could try to make a trade, but their assets are all meh at best, no star in the league is going to be traded for Andre Jackson Jr and Chris Livingston, especially with no picks attached. The 2025/2026 season is likely a lost cause anyway with Dame on the sidelines so you are essentially asking Giannis to keep it afloat for a season while maybe making minor improvements. Both options for the Bucks sound depressing. At least they had 2021, you can't take that away from them ever. 

Los Angeles Lakers

Maybe I fell for some of the Lakers exceptionalism in the media when I picked the Lakers in 5 against the Timberwolves. Part of it is I had a big time belief in Luka and LeBron and the other part is I just love to hate the Timberwolves since everyone else loves them. Either way, I was wrong in a big way and now the Lakers have an offseason of changes ahead of them. For all the slack Nico Harrison rightfully got, Luka Doncic did actually look out of shape and terrible at defense in this series and it was a big reason why the Lakers lost. In Dallas, for the run to the finals last season Luka had 2 really good rim protectors in Derick Lively and Daniel Gafford to help cover up some of his deficiencies. This season in LA the Lakers had Jackson Hayes and Alex Len as options at the 5, neither of which were playable in any capacity this series and the Wolves just took it to them at the rim. Rudy Gobert of all people had a 20/20 game in game 5 to close out the series and it was basically because there was nobody taller than 6'7 on the court for the Lakers.  Obviously this is priority number 1 for LA, find a serviceable big man that they can trust to play in the playoffs. There should be a few obtainable replacement level centers available this offseason. Clint Capela on the Hawks comes to mind as a decent option. While he isn't moving the needle on his own, he's a clear upgrade to anything they have right now and would provide some stability on the defensive end. The Lakers also need to prioritize keeping the depth they have. Wings like Dorian Finney-Smith and Rui Hachimura are perfect fits next to Luka and LeBron and should be around next season if they want to make a run. 

Besides a big, which is the clear #1 need for the Lakers, Luka Doncic needs to maybe listen to what Nico Harrison was saying and come to the next season in shape. Too often Luka spends the first 20 games playing himself into game shape, then he gets injured and has to start the process over again. This is a top 3, if not top 1 player in the world when he's on. I've heard it said and I agree, Luka has a responsibility to basketball to be the best player he can be. He should be motivated to prove the haters wrong this offseason and come out with a chip on his shoulder. With a fully healthy and engaged Luka and an actual NBA center, I think the Lakers are contenders next season. They have a nice comfortable position of having a generational talent, now they need to put the pieces around him to make it work. I hope they do it, deep Luka playoff runs are really fun to watch.

Detroit Pistons

The most optimistic of the 3 on the list maybe? At least the easiest for the mainstream to adore. The Pistons may have lost, and I may have celebrated, but in all seriousness they had a season for the fans to be proud of. They went toe to toe with the Knicks and were close in every single game this series, they just fell victim to the ridiculousness that is Jalen Brunson. Now they head into an important offseason, the first one in a while where they're coming off a post season, how should they play it? Unless they take a big swing, I think the Pistons should stand pat this offseason. They have a budding superstar in Cade, some promising young players in Duren and Thompson and a returning Jaden Ivey who could be an upgrade at the 2 guard spot. Their veteran depth is all solid and not super old, they should contribute similarly next season. The continuity of running it back might be worth a couple extra wins as teams try to get it going and now they have a fanbase who's excited to get behind this core. If they face a similar result next year, they should start to look to make more major changes, but for now I say keep the status quo and see if these young guys can improve. 

What if they do take a big swing though? A team in Detroit with a young star who gets his teammates involved would be a very interesting landing spot for a guy like Giannis or KD. The Pistons have a ton of young talent, their own picks and enough of an infrastructure in place to be able to make a swing at a big superstar. Not to mention, the aforementioned promising young players are all going to need to be paid soon, and are any of them really worth the big contracts they'll command? It might be early, but the chance to get a player like Giannis is maybe once in a lifetime. You have a player in Cade who is ready to win now, why not get him an MVP candidate and give him that chance? That being said, I don't think the Pistons should risk messing up their chemistry and growth unless it's for a player like Giannis. It just so happens that a player like Giannis might just be available. 

And that's that! Fun one today, there's other teams that are out I know but I'll get to them later if I feel like it. Second round preview incoming Monday!