These eight teams extended their seasons with a first round playoff series, but their offseason begin sooner than they were hoping following their elimination.

Milwaukee Bucks

The Big Questions:

- Which of their free agent guards do the Bucks want to bring back?

- Which of their free agent guards will give them the best chance to re-sign him?

- How much more do they need to add to a big man rotation with Larry Sanders, Ersan Ilyasova and John Henson?

Notable Free Agents:  Brandon Jennings (Restricted), Monta Ellis (Player Option), JJ Redick (Unrestricted), Samuel Dalembert (Unrestricted), and Mike Dunleavy (Unrestricted)

2013 Draft Picks Held: Own 1st Rounder, Own 2nd Rounder

The Lay of the Land: Having all three main guards in varying levels of free agency puts the Bucks in a strange situation. They have the ability to match with Brandon Jennings, but have to deal with a pure open market for both JJ Redick and Monta Ellis assuming the latter opts out.

I fully expect Jennings to either get a big offer or even sign the one-year tender and have zero idea whether Milwaukee would match even a near-max offer sheet. While Jennings clearly has plenty of talent, it feels like a hard argument to make that he can be the best player on a team that can advance at least one round in the playoffs. Jennings can be a key part of a great team, but likely not as the primary building block. Similarly, Redick and Ellis profile perfectly as players who will get overpaid if money is their primary objective in free agency. I could easily see Redick taking less to go to the right place and Ellis needs to go to an organization that values him and makes sense for his skills long-term. Since we do not know what either wants in their next destination, it feels like a shot in the dark to predict where they end up.

Beyond the guards, I love the core of Sanders, Ilyasova, and Henson particularly considering they all have at least one more season on their current deal. The looming extension for Most Improved candidate SANDERS! puts Milwaukee in a strange situation in terms of future cap space since he will get a meaningful pay raise and there are so many other unknowns in the franchise.

Boston Celtics

The Big Questions:

- How much longer does Kevin Garnett want to play?

- Will we see a full strength Jared Sullinger for most of 2013-14?

- Can Fab Melo become a rotation player for next season?

Notable Free Agents: None

2013 Draft Picks Held: Own 1st Rounder (traded 2nd Rounder to Portland)

The Lay of the Land: With so much money committed to their existing roster, Boston would have to make trades in order to look substantially different next season. The addition of Rajon Rondo at some point will give their depth a boost but the biggest lingering question is how much longer Garnett wants to play. While we have the same question about Paul Pierce, it would be awfully hard for this team to make much noise without Garnett until they get a talent infusion because of how their talent is structured.

Fortunately, Boston has a compelling group of young-ish players that can make this team much deeper if they are healthy and improve. Players like Fab Melo and Jared Sullinger can combine with Jordan Crawford and Avery Bradley to make teams sweat and give the elder statesmen some much-needed support. We will just have to see if they can deliver, especially before Rondo returns.

Atlanta Hawks

The Big Questions:

- Can they figure out a way to get Dwight Howard?

- Should they give Josh Smith the contract some team will be dumb enough to offer him?

- Will Jeff Teague get a surprising offer from Atlanta or anyone else?

Notable Free Agents: Josh Smith (Unrestricted), Jeff Teague (Restricted), Ivan Johnson (Unrestricted), Devin Harris (Unrestricted), Kyle Korver (Unrestricted), and Zaza Pachulia (Unrestricted)

2013 Draft Picks Held: Own 1st Rounder, Houston’s 1st Rounder, Own 2nd Rounder, Houston’s 2nd Rounder

The Lay of the Land: Despite having Al Horford and Louis Williams on the books long-term, Atlanta may have the potential for the most major turnover in the entire league. Even though Dwight Howard did not look like himself this year and we have to have some trepidation that the new normal for him will be lower than it was before his back injury, he would be a franchise-changing addition. Assuming he ends up elsewhere, the Hawks have tough decisions with both Josh Smith and Jeff Teague. Each has talent and can be a nice player on a good team but could also be offered far too much to make them worth keeping. Since Horford is a good player on a fair contract, Atlanta can be patient if the market gets too crazy on their free agents.

Atlanta did a nice job playing the RFA market to get Josh Smith on his current deal, but it feels unlikely that they will be able to repeat that success with Teague. Utah in particular could end up with cap space and a glaring need at the position that Jeff can use to leverage a nice offer. On Smoove, we just have to find out if any team is dumb enough to offer him the money he wants.

Brooklyn Nets

The Big Questions:

- Can they find a taker for Kris Humphries’ soon to be expiring contract?

- Will Andray Blatche take a pay cut to stay in Brooklyn?

- Will CJ Watson pick up his player option?

Notable Free Agents: Andray Blatche (Unrestricted) and CJ Watson (Player Option)

2013 Draft Picks Held: Own 1st Rounder (own 2nd Rounder traded to Minnesota)

The Lay of the Land: With the huge amount of money the Nets spent last offseaosn to build their team, this one will be one built on smaller moves that could still have a major effect on the team’s ceiling. Even though Kris Humphries is overpaid and plays a non-pivotal position, we could see a team take him to shed a longer-term deal because of the quality free agent class in 2014 or the huge luxury tax consequences of the repeater tax. Assuming Prokorov is willing to foot the huge bill, adding another starter to this team would be a gigantic boon for their potential to be a factor in the East for years to come.

On the depth side, both CJ Watson and Andray Blatche played last season on minimum salaries and have a chance to get paid more elsewhere. While the team has Tyshawn Taylor as a potential Watson replacement, no one stands out as a good fit to get Blatche’s role should he head for greener pastures. His statements seem to indicate a willingness to stick it out with Brooklyn, but we will have to see if that turns out to be the case when the money is on the table.

Houston Rockets

The Big Questions:

- Can they get another max talent to join the team?

- If not, do they keep their cap space for 2014 or improve the team now?

- Even without getting a better talent at the position, would the team move Jeremy Lin for a reasonable offer?

Notable Free Agents: Francisco Garcia (Team Option)

2013 Draft Picks Held: Phoenix’s 2nd Rounder (Own 1st and 2nd Rounders held by Atlanta)

The Lay of the Land: Houston has 15 players under contract for next season and still has plenty of cap space to make a major impact. Furthermore, each and every player they have signed presently has a contract that makes them more of an asset than a liability. That kind of flexibility means Daryl Morey could make some unbalanced trades in terms of salary, talent or both. Unfortunately, the five dimes for a dollar trades are some of the hardest to make in the entire league because the exchange rate for elite talent is often much higher than that.

On top of everything else, the Rockets' front office can elect to roll over their money to next summer by either standing largely pat or by using their space to pick up assets from teams looking to get under the cap or tax for next year. With so many resources and an insane amount of flexibility, now should be the time for Houston to move up a few notches in the Western Conference pecking order.

Los Angeles Lakers

The Big Questions:

- Will Dwight Howard re-sign?

- Will Metta World Peace take a pay cut to stay on the team?

- Can they retain Earl Clark?

Notable Free Agents: Dwight Howard (Unrestricted), Earl Clark (Unrestricted), Devin Ebanks (Unrestricted), Metta World Peace (Player Option), and Darius Morris (Unrestricted)

2013 Draft Picks Held: Own 2nd Rounder (own 1st Rounder held by Cleveland)

The Lay of the Land: Dwight Howard and the uncertainty that constantly surrounds him like Pigpen on Peanuts has another chance to choose his home for the next few seasons. While the Lakers are the best option financially and promotionally, the age and inflexibility of the Lake Show could make him consider other options or even the maddening possibility of a one-year deal to become part of the 2014 free agent class. Without any insight into his decision-making process, I know better than to speculate on what Dwight will do.

Contrary to what some members of the media have written or said recently, all amnesty decisions for the 2013 offseason must be made in the first week after the end of the July moratorium. That means the Lakers' brass will not have enough time to know about Kobe Bryant’s status for next season with any meaningful clarity.

With that in mind, the only other reasonable option for the amnesty provision is Metta World Peace. While that makes sense because of the luxury tax burden on top of his salary, I could see the Lakers telling World Peace that picking up his player option means the end of his time with the Lakers due to the potential amnesty and indicating that the only way he sticks with the team would be to take a pay cut but a longer deal. I have no idea if he would take that or roll the dice on the amnesty waiver process (where a return to Houston would be a possibility) so that stands out as another unanswerable question. 

Los Angeles Clippers

The Big Questions:

- Will Chris Paul stay with the Clippers?

- Is there any chance we see CP3 take a one-year deal?

- Will Chauncey Billups return for another run with the team?

Notable Free Agents: Chris Paul (Unrestricted), Chauncey Billups (Unrestricted), Lamar Odom (Unrestricted), Matt Barnes (Unrestricted), Ronny Turiaf (Unrestricted), and Ryan Hollins (Unrestricted)

2013 Draft Picks Held: Own 1st Rounder (own 2nd Rounder held by Detroit)

The Lay of the Land: No single decision affects the future of a franchise more than Chris Paul’s. As the best player to ever play for the organization and a key recruiter of their potent depth, losing Paul would decimate the team until Donald Sterling sells. After Paul makes his choice, the team will have a chance to figure out what they want to do with Eric Bledsoe. He could be a key piece on a deep run next season, but the Clippers will not have the financial flexibility to retain both Bledsoe and Paul. The trade market would contain many suitors though I am sure they will try to use the fact that the team cannot retain both as leverage to lower the asking price.

Beyond those two, the Clippers actually have most of their key players locked up for next season. The only main cogs of A Tribe Called Bench up in the air are Matt Barnes, Lamar Odom and Chauncey Billups. Each would be nice to retain but also are replaceable as long as CP3 stays in town. I fully expect Lamar Odom to re-sign considering the rough go he had the last time he left Los Angeles.

Denver Nuggets

The Big Questions:

- What does Andre Iguodala want long-term? Will he opt out?

- Will Denver retain Corey Brewer or fill his niche with one of their young players?

- Do the Nuggets want to combine any assets to build a smaller, stronger core?

Notable Free Agents: Andre Iguodala (Player Option), Corey Brewer (Unrestricted), and Timofey Mozgov (Unrestricted)

2013 Draft Picks Held: Own 1st Rounder (own 2nd Rounder held by Phoenix)

The Lay of the Land: After the devastating series loss to Golden State, there will be plenty of pressure for the Nuggets to make bigger structural moves if possible. Thanks to the contracts inked with JaVale McGee and Ty Lawson in 2012, Denver does not have a ton of long-term cap space even if Andre Iguodala opts out and heads elsewhere. Iguodala still stands as a key piece since his perimeter defense can really help this team while they do not always need big offensive nights from him in order to win. Thankfully for the Nuggets, McGee, Lawson, Koufos, Gallinari, Chandler, Miller, Fournier and Faried are all signed for at least two more seasons so they will be a deep and potent team for years to come. However, that depth could also be used to try and add a higher level player who can make Denver a more dangerous team in crunch time and the playoffs. Since that likely would come in a trade, we will have to wait and see what the market would be for players like Wilson Chandler and Evan Fournier.

Headed into the season, most pre-draft talk revolved around Nerlens Noel and Shabazz Muhammad, the two highest-rated players in the freshman class. However, neither has quite lived up to the hype so far and their teams (Kentucky and UCLA) have slipped out of the Top 25. Their struggles have created a wide-open race for the No. 1 overall pick, a stark contrast to this time last year, when lottery-bound teams were already daydreaming about Anthony Davis.

As a result, there isn’t much enthusiasm surrounding the 2013 draft, especially in comparison to 2014, which could feature Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker and Julius Randle. But while the No. 1 pick in 2013 may not be as valuable as in 2012 or 2014, there are still 29 other picks in the first round. Barring a work stoppage that keeps most of the NCAA’s top prospects in school, there are excellent players available every year, even in a “weak draft” like 2013.

Any draft class will look weak in comparison to 2003, which featured eight future All-Stars, including four who were taken in the top five picks. Nevertheless, from 1999-2008, every draft has had at least three future All-Stars. In all ten, there was at least one All-Star taken outside of the lottery. Even 2000, widely considered the weakest draft in modern memory, still had Kenyon Martin, Michael Redd, Jamaal Magloire, Jamal Crawford and Hedo Turkoglu.

Basketball is a young man’s game: the prospects of today are the stars of tomorrow, often faster than we imagine. In 2011, the average age of the top 112 players in the NBA was a little over 26. The best teams tend to be slightly older not because experience is inherently more valuable, but because only the best players last long enough to gain that experience. The average NBA career lasts only 4.5 seasons; the league’s veterans are, by definition, above-average talents.

At the same time, the pool of talent worldwide is as deep as it has ever been. There are more people watching the sport, more teenagers playing it competitively and more money pouring into it than at any time in history. Swimmers and sprinters get bigger, faster and more athletic every four years; basketball isn’t immune to these trends. The international teams in the London Olympics were better than the ones in Beijing and Barcelona; they will be even better in Rio de Janeiro.

The distribution of generational talents will always be somewhat random, but there is a steady flow of top 100 players coming into the NBA on an annual basis. The 2011 draft, where many of the top American prospects elected not to make themselves eligible due to fear of an impending lockout, is the exception that proves the rule. While that class is still only in their second year in the NBA, No. 1 overall pick Kyrie Irving is the only one whose emerged from the pack so far.

In contrast, 2009 produced Blake Griffin, James Harden, Ricky Rubio, Stephen Curry and Jrue Holiday. The 2010 class -- John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Derrick Favors and Greg Monroe -- may be one of the more polarizing in recent memory, but there was clearly plenty of talent available when both Avery Bradley and Eric Bledsoe went outside the top 15. The newest batch of rookies have barely even gotten their feet wet and Davis, Andre Drummond, Damian Lillard and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist already look like cornerstone-type players. All three classes, at one point during the pre-draft process, were derided as “weak”.

One of the weirder aspects of NBA draft coverage is the groupthink mentality that quickly emerges. Last year, for example, everyone decided that Kidd-Gilchrist, Bradley Beal and Thomas Robinson formed the “Tier 2” of available players after Davis. Yet Drummond had a higher ceiling than Robinson and Terrence Ross’ numbers were every bit as good as Beal’s. There’s just no internal consistency in the logic behind the conventional wisdom. The entire crux of the Austin Rivers boomlet seemed to be a famous father and a buzzer beater he hit on national TV.

If anything, downplaying the quality of a draft class seems to be a pastime for many “NBA insiders.” The Nets took this cynical strategy to its logical conclusion in 2012, badmouthing the draft in order to justify putting only a top-3 protection on the pick they dealt for Gerald Wallace. They had apparently weighed the entirety of the 2012 draft class and come to the conclusion that only Davis, Robinson and Kidd-Gilchrist would be much help to them in 2013. Bear in mind, this was a team giving Kris Humphries 35 minutes a night.

Far too often, teams deal away first round picks thinking the guaranteed contract that comes with it is a burden rather than an asset. Players who make less than they are worth in the NBA’s economic system, either superstars whose salaries are capped or young players on rookie deals, are more valuable than ever thanks to new luxury tax penalties which harshly punish overspending. And with “roster flexibility” the new buzzword, teams will end up regretting the vast majority of contracts given to veteran free agents in the decline phase of their careers.

To paraphrase Bill Simmons, would you rather have Wallace at four years and $40 million or Harrison Barnes at five years and $20? Landry Fields at three years and $20 million or Jeffery Taylor at three years and $3 million? Royce White was a gamble that may not work out for the Rockets, but at most, he will cost them $3 million over two years. The Celtics, on the other hand, committed four years and $36 million to Jeff Green, a guy coming off heart surgery whose never had a PER over 15. Every player coming out of college is a risk on some level, but the risks in free agency are much, much higher.

There will certainly be risks involved in selecting either Noel or Muhammad, although both have improved in recent weeks. But now that the high school class of 2012 has a semester of college under their belts, expect a number of future stars to emerge in conference play. Whether it’s Isaiah Austin, Marcus Smart, Ben McLemore or Anthony Bennett, there are plenty of high-upside young players out there whom the average NBA fan hasn’t heard much about yet. In general, there are no bad drafts in the NBA, just bad drafters.

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Late last week, Avery Johnson was reminded of a painful fact of life for every NBA coach: they are hired to be fired. He’s the second one to lose his job this season, following Mike Brown, who was let go after the Los Angeles Lakers' 1-4 start. No one will compare either to Phil Jackson, but both have had tremendous success in their time in the NBA. They became scapegoats for their teams’ disappointing play, but the issues with the Lakers and Brooklyn Nets go far beyond the coaching staffs. NBA teams hold coaches to a stricter standard than they do GM’s, yet a coach can only be as good as the players his front office gives him.

Firing Brown certainly hasn’t fixed the Lakers. Neither Brown nor Mike D’Antoni can make Dwight Howard’s recovery from back surgery any quicker or ensure Steve Nash can stay in the starting line-up. And even if the Lakers' stars are 100% healthy in the playoffs, their supporting cast’s lack of speed and shooting ability will still haunt them. The Princeton offense Brown installed may not be any more suited for the Lakers stars than the uptempo style D’Antoni prefers, but every offensive system requires role players who can stretch the floor just as every defensive system requires players who can stay in front of their men.

Yet, for all their problems, the Lakers are still in much better shape than Brooklyn. The Nets have a $90 million payroll and championship expectations, but they don’t have a championship-level roster. After an 11-4 start to the season that netted Johnson the Coach of the Month Award in November, they fell back to Earth in December, culminating in two ugly 15+ point blowouts and a 14-14 record that cost Johnson his job. His rigid offensive sets may not be the best fit with Deron Williams’ skill-set, but he wasn’t the one who assembled a roster without any interior defense.

In an interview with the New York Times earlier in the season, Brooklyn GM Billy King said he built the team to compete with the Miami Heat. There is some superficial logic to his claim: the Nets have an All-Star caliber player at point guard (Williams) and center (Brook Lopez), the two weakest positions in the Heat’s starting lineup, while they have big, physical wings in Joe Johnson and Gerald Wallace to match-up with LeBron James and Dwayne Wade. However, it doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny: no team with as little frontcourt defense as the Nets has ever defeated LeBron James in the playoffs.

The common theme in LeBron’s playoff exits has been a elite defensive center capable of preventing him from dominating the paint. Here are the centers who defeated LeBron from 2007-2011: Rasheed Wallace, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett (twice), Dwight Howard and Tyson Chandler. Even before he developed a low-post game, there was no way for a team without an athletic big men to prevent the 6’9 270 LeBron from running a train at the front of the rim.

For all the concerns about the Brooklyn offense, its still rated much higher (10th) than their defense (18th). Lopez has many offensive gifts, but he is a finesse scorer who needs help defensively and on the glass. His career rebounding percentage (13.3) is one of the lowest of any center in the NBA. None of this is insurmountable, but it does mean he needs to be paired with a frontcourt partner who can make up for his weaknesses, someone like the hyper-athletic Derrick Favors, whom Brooklyn dealt to get Williams two years ago. Kris Humphries, who averages 0.7 blocks a game, isn’t that guy and neither is Wallace, a converted swingman on the wrong side of 30.

Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has said that anything less than a berth in the Conference Finals would be a disappointment, but it’s hard to see this core pulling that off, regardless of the coach.  Even if they don’t wind up on the Heat’s side of the bracket, they’ve fallen way behind the pace of the Knicks, who have exactly the type of interior defensive presence (Tyson Chandler) Brooklyn so desperately needs next to Lopez. Atlanta, Joe Johnson’s old team, is currently in third place: how would the Nets match up with Al Horford and Joe Smith in a seven-game series?

To be fair to King, Brooklyn’s future would look a lot different with Dwight Howard, whom they nearly acquired this summer. King may also be a victim of Prokhorov’s mandate to contend immediately: it’s not as easy to buy a title in the NBA, with its byzantine system of salary cap and luxury tax restrictions designed to “ensure competitive balance” and protect the owners’ pocketbooks, as it is Europe’s more free-market sports leagues. The Nets would have a more promising future if they had kept the three lottery picks (Favors, Enes Kanter and Damian Lillard) they dealt for Williams and Wallace, but they wouldn’t be any closer to contending this season.

None of that changes the Nets second-round ceiling, which is clearly unacceptable to Prokhorov. However, as long as he keeps his checkbook open, things aren’t hopeless. They may still be able to buy their way out of the hole King has dug by using expiring salaries to deal for interior defense in the same way the Mavs used Erick Dampier’s contract to acquire Chandler in 2011. In the end, King’s creativity will be what determines whether Brooklyn becomes a title contender, not whoever he ends up hiring to replace Johnson full-time.

That isn’t to diminish the impact a head coach can have. If a coach can’t command the respect of a locker room, no amount of tactical acumen will be able to save him. At the same time, elite teams can be compromised by their head coach’s inability to make tactical adjustments. Cleveland fans will always wonder what would have happened if Brown had played LeBron at the 4, while Scott Brooks’ refusal to make adjustments in a critical playoff series has cost Oklahoma City dearly in each of the last two seasons.

A coach can only play the cards his GM gives him. It’s different in college basketball, where the head coach doubles as the GM. In the NBA, most coaches end up taking the fall for mistakes their GM’s made. Randy Wittman (Wizards) and Keith Smart (Kings) are widely rumored to be next on the chopping block, but the problems with the Wizards and Kings go way beyond whatever poor soul is tasked to win games with their poorly constructed rosters.

Kings GM Geoff Petrie earned a lot of goodwill for the elite teams he built in the early 2000’s, but Sacramento hasn’t made the playoffs in seven seasons. In that time, they’ve had six head coaches. Washington has had four head coaches since they last made the playoffs, yet GM Glen Grunwald actually got a contract extension in 2012. The most important personnel decision Prokhorov made in Brooklyn wasn’t re-signing Williams or replacing Johnson; it was letting someone with King’s checkered history as a GM run the show in the first place.

When a ship is sinking, instead of rearranging deck chairs, maybe we should start worrying about whose actually been piloting it.

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