What’s next for the teams eliminated from the NBA playoffs? That is the question many fans are asking a wildly successful restart to the NBA season amid the coronavirus pandemic and an unwavering show of commitment by the entire league to the civil rights movement after the unjust deaths of so many people at the hands of police officers across the nation. The league’s “bubble experiment”, where the entire league, including players, coaches, trainers, and journalists, quarantined themselves at Walt Disney World, was a massive risk that paid impressive dividends, with zero reported coronavirus cases coming from NBA campuses. All scheduled games played out as planned despite players boycotting games due to the aforementioned civil rights movement. With that being said, many teams are looking to answer a lot of questions in order to retool their rosters and contend for the NBA finals next season. Here are two particularly interesting teams’ situations and predicaments:

Los Angeles Clippers: After suffering a calamitous collapse at the hands of the heavy underdog Denver Nuggets, the Los Angeles Clippers appear to be in shambles. Owner Steve Ballmer was reportedly furious after the end of their season, firing head coach Doc Rivers and threatening to do the same to his analytics team. The Clippers found themselves up 16 points with a 3-1 lead in game 5 of the Western Conference Finals. Somehow, they blew that 16-point lead and a double-digit lead in every subsequent game against the Nuggets, who most fans thought didn’t even have a shot to win the series. Reports of locker room strife, off the court incidents, a lack of clear leadership, and a generally unpleasant environment came out soon after. The Clippers traded all of their draft picks in order to acquire Paul George as their second star next to Kawhi Leonard, and he greatly underperformed in the playoffs while chemistry issues were caused due to former coach Doc Rivers refusing to play certain players and playing favorites with his rotations. With Leonard and George set to become free agents after next season, the Clippers need to play their cards perfectly in order to retain their stars or improve upon them because they have no backup plan as of now.

Boston Celtics: After their former star Kyrie Irving packed his bags and left for the Brooklyn Nets to form a superteam, the Celtics had a fresh outlook and found themselves in a new situation after a few tumultuous seasons with Irving. For starters, instead of a ball-dominant leader who needed heavy involvement in the offense like Irving, the Celtics picked up Kemba Walker, an amazing scorer who had the personality necessary to concede plays to the Celtics’ young talents like Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Marcus Smart. Celtics General Manager, Danny Ainge, built an excellent team that performed well, but as with many other Celtics seasons in recent memory, it felt like they fell just short of being a true threat to win it all this year. Oakton senior and lifelong Celtics fan, Andy Jang, weighed in, stating that Coach Brad Stevens needed to “give the ball to Jaylen Brown more.” He continued, saying that “the offense relies too heavily on Jayson Tatum. He is a powerhouse, but the Celtics have other weapons in their arsenal that could make them a very deadly team.” Many critics echoed the same sentiments as Jang. In their 6 game loss to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals, the Celtics offense was stifled by Miami’s zone defense, leading to many like Zach Lowe citing Stevens’ inability to adapt and take advantage of his players’ abilities as a reason. Stevens is still an excellent coach, however, and he is commanding a team stocked with young talent and options. Many Celtics fans might agree with Jang when he says, “I like where the team is heading and I see so much potential in them.”