The NBA’s (totally awesome) second season is finally upon us. Now that the 16 postseason teams are officially set, we have a chance to further examine the craziness that sure to lie ahead. In our playoff preview series, we will take a look at some of the more intriguing questions surrounding these first round matchups.

Toronto Raptors (2) vs Indiana Pacers (7)

1. What can the Pacers do to get high value shots against the Raptors' scheme?

This is a bit of a loaded question given that Indiana currently sits at 4th in the league when it comes to chucking mid-range shots, as defined by NBA.com’s stats database. This is primarily a result of a roster of, well, bad-shot takers. Paul George, Monta Ellis and Rodney Stuckey all have a tendency of flinging up or settling for tough, contested 2’s. Then add in rotation bigs like Lavoy Allen and rookie Myles Turner aren’t stretchy enough (yet, at least) to camp out past the 3-point line and you have a roster destined to finish near the top of the league in the dreaded “long 2” category.

This will be very apparent against the Raptors. Jonas Valanciunas hangs out near deep in the paint -- Roy Hibbert style -- on pick-and-rolls. Head coach Dwane Casey also employs a technique on some side pick-and-rolls where his bigs stick tight to the roller when there are no shooters on the weakside (or the on-ball defender “veers” back like a late switch and takes the big). Like pretty much every NBA defense, it’s designed to bait teams into settling for mid-range jumpers (or use rapid ball movement for 3’s), just with a couple personnel and schematic tweaks to make it a little easier for jump-shot happy opponents to fall into that trap.

George and Ellis in particular just can’t spend the series settling for shots like this…

...if they want to seriously threaten the Raptors. And if pick-and-rolls aren’t doing the trick, the Pacers need to rely on plays that require more off-ball screening. One in particular involves “gaggle” action where a player can use a weakside screening maze to either sneak a cut through to the rim….

….or cut into space beyond the arc for an open 3:

Now expecting wholesale changes given Indiana’s personnel and the fact they spent 82 games playing a certain way is unrealistic -- that whole lipstick on a pig thing. But Frank Vogel and the Pacers staff can certainly try to use their playcalling to get their team out of any offensive funks and hopefully find them some more efficient shots.

2. What will the (possible) return of DeMarre Carroll to the starting lineup do to matchups, the Raptors' rotation and playcalling?

One silver lining in Carroll’s extended absence this season has been the emergence of rookie Norman Powell. A bundle of athleticism and defensive intensity, Powell has the look of player well on his way to being a key rotation member of a contending team. Because of that, Carroll’s return to health (and bigger role) will cause several interesting trickle down effects. 

If Casey opts to keep Carroll as a reserve and roll with Powell, it essentially acts as a defense-offense swap. Powell is a more natural fit to chase around Ellis, one of Indy’s primary playmakers, and DeMar DeRozan can slide up a spot and mark George -- just like he did Raps OT win back in mid-March. The downside to this scenario is that DeRozan loses an edge on any postups with George guarding him on the other end. Toronto’s offense can certainly survive with putting DeRozan in more off-ball screens and pick-and-rolls, but it still takes away an option to attack the Indiana defense.

If Casey slides Carroll back into a starting role and pushes Powell to the bench, it frees up DeRozan to perhaps target Ellis for postups -- if (and it’s probably a big if) the Pacers decide to simply keep George on Carroll and avoid any cross-match confusion. On the other end, however, it would mean DeRozan would be tasked with tracking the smaller, but quicker Ellis as he runs rampant off pick-and-rolls and hand-offs at the other end.

On top of that, Carroll moving to the starting lineup could actually bump Powell back out of the rotation entirely. Casey has preferred to anchor his bench unit of Cory Joseph, Terrence Ross,  Patrick Patterson and Bismack Biyombo with All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry. Swapping out Lowry for Powell to play an all-bench quintet for the first time is a pretty risky move. But not doing it means Powell probably doesn’t play, which eliminates a helpful player from the rotation. You can file it under “good problems to have”, but that doesn’t mean it’s something that Casey will find easy to deal with.

3. How often will the Pacers utilize one of their best 5-man lineups?

Indiana went into this summer making moves designed to transition the franchise from a stodgy, traditional team to a more modern one. Ironically, given all the small-ball talk that dominated their offseason narrative, the team is actually at their best with two traditional bigs -- Allen and Ian Mahinmi -- sharing the frontcourt (Their defense is also still making up for a below average offense. How things change...).

In 333 minutes, the fivesome of Mahinmi, Allen, George, Ellis, and starting point guard George Hill has outscored opponents by 5.6 points per 48 minutes -- much higher than the team’s regular season mark of 1.7. It was by far and away the highest mark of any Pacer quintet tallying at least 150 minutes together. The problem is that Allen, despite being inserted into the starting lineup of late, has still only averaged 18 minutes per game in March.

Against a Raptors team that plays Luis Scola and Patterson at the 4, sticking with Allen -- and therefore this 5-man lineup -- for longer stretches seems like a good option for Vogel. That sample size doesn’t mean it’s a shoe-in for success, but it’s produced better than anything else the Pacers have put on the floor for a decent chunk of time. And while Patterson and Scola shoot 3’s, they aren’t exactly the multidimensional Draymond Green types that would really give Allen trouble. It stands to reason for the Pacers to be at their best this series, their head coach needs to roll more with one of his best regular season lineups.