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1. Will J.R. Smith stay, and stay focused?

Smith is expected to opt out of his contract that pays him $2.93 million next year. Other teams can offer the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year than the Knicks (roughly $5 million annually), but many won’t give Smith the freedom Mike Woodson has. Smith may want the big payday, but he also could have cost himself several millions with his unimpressive postseason. He could re-up with the Knicks and have another opt-out after Year 1 and then get the big payday from them next summer, provided he stays productive and out of the gossip pages for his late-night habits.

2. What’s Amar’e Stoudemire’s role?

The Knicks will try and move him this summer, but with two years and $45 million remaining on his contract they may not find takers for Stoudemire until his deal is expiring. In the meantime, they have to hope Stoudemire can stay healthy and Woodson can figure out a role that’s best for him and the Knicks. Stoudemire played well at times off the bench, but he has to be able to work well with Carmelo Anthony because then the Knicks will have a real threat. It may never happen, and ultimately Stoudemire’s days in New York could be numbered.

3. What do they do at power forward?

If the Knicks decide that Stoudemire is going to remain a reserve, they have to go out and find a power forward who can score consistently in the post or at least be a threat down there. Playing Anthony at power forward worked in the regular season, but against Indiana the Knicks needed to establish someone inside and they didn’t have anyone. Ultimately they relied too heavily on their three-point shooting and when they didn’t fall they didn’t look like a 54-win team. The Knicks need to become more diversified so everything doesn’t fall on Anthony all the time.

4. What changes need to be made?

They need to get younger and more athletic. General manager Glen Grunwald has to get creative because the Knicks have $77 million tied up to eight players. Two are Jason Kidd and Marcus Camby. It’s hard to imagine either walking away from guaranteed money, but they could seek buyouts. Kidd had some good moments, but showed his age, especially in the playoffs when he couldn’t score. Camby wasn’t healthy for most of the season. When he was, he couldn’t crack the rotation, not even against the Pacers, who killed the Knicks with their size and on the boards.

5. What moves can be made?

Raymond Felton wasn’t as consistent as his first go-around as a Knick, but he was big in their first-round win over Boston. Tyson Chandler was a disappointment for the second straight postseason. Odds are both are back, but if the Knicks can package either – perhaps with Steve Novak, who also disappeared in the playoffs – maybe they can find some pieces they need to get out of the second round. The Knicks will have to address the point guard spot regardless. There are no guarantees Kidd or Pablo Prigioni, who will be a free agent, will return.

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History someday will judge Carmelo Anthony’s playoff legacy. But
for now, there is more than enough to chew over in the present after a game Saturday night that highlighted the best and worst of Melo.

Let’s just say it’s complicated.

For 2 1/2 quarters, he was close to a one-man team, scoring 31 of the Knicks’ first 60 points to keep them within reach of the Pacers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Then, when his supporting cast awoke and the Knicks stormed back from 12 down to make things interesting in the fourth quarter, Anthony lost his touch at the worst time.

End result: a 106-99 loss and an earlier-than-they-had-hoped-for end to the Knicks’ season.

Anthony had 39 points, 15-for- 29 shooting and seven rebounds, a line that looks quite good on its face. But his numbers for the fourth quarter were ghastly: four points, 2-for-7 shooting with three key turnovers.

Everything that could go wrong did in a stretch that turned the game. Two lowlights:

With the Knicks ahead 92-90 and 5:04 left, Roy Hibbert blocked a dunk by Anthony at the rim, rousing the crowd at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

“It was a hell of a block,” Anthony said. “Big play by Hibbert. It kind of shifted the momentum a little bit at that point . . . That block I think spearheaded their momentum at the end.”

Then, with the score tied at 92 and just under four minutes left, Lance Stephenson stole a pass by Melo, raced down the court, scored on a driving layup and was fouled. The three-point play made it 95-92, giving the Pacers the lead for good.

Stephenson, who grew up in Brooklyn, had 25 points (10-for-13 shooting), 10 rebounds and three assists.

Anthony, who spent his early childhood in Brooklyn, was left to ponder his 10th NBA season without reaching the Finals, and his ninth without getting past the second round.

Was the late fade related to fatigue? Anthony looked exhausted and deflated in the locker room but he said: “No, no, I don’t think it was fatigue. I don’t think they made any adjustments. A couple of shots I felt the ball was almost in.”

So what went so wrong in the final minutes? “I really don’t know,” he said. “I have to sit back and think about that.”

Anthony’s not-so-grand finale will not go over well with fans, but let’s be fair: Until his friends, led by Iman Shumpert, finally started making three-pointers in the third quarter, he was the only thing standing between the Knicks and a blowout loss.

“You watched the game; he had shots,” coach Mike Woodson said. “He felt like he got hit on some shots and no calls. All we can do is put Melo in position to be successful.”

The Pacers’ Paul George, who had primary defensive responsibility on him, said, “Once we kind of neutralized Melo a little bit, the whole thing shifted.”

Anthony was among the least of the Knicks’ concerns overall. J.R. Smith went out with yet another poor shooting night, 4-for-15. Raymond Felton was 0-for-7. Tyson Chandler again was outplayed by his counterpart, Hibbert.

And Jason Kidd still hasn’t scored since April 23 — and at age 40 might never score again.

So the question is how best to build a more consistent, playoff-ready, preferably younger support system around Anthony, who will be the Knicks’ centerpiece for the foreseeable future.

For this season, though, it’s over. No conference finals. No juicy, long-anticipated showdown with the Heat. A legacy still under construction.

“It’s a disappointment,” Anthony said. “But my career is far from over, so I’m not really too concerned about that. I still have a lot more time in this league.”

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INDIANAPOLIS — Carmelo Anthony sat at his locker, looking upset, frustrated, surprised and almost numb after the Knicks’ most successful season in nearly 20 years ended 10 wins short of their first NBA title since 1973.

They were in position to force a Game 7 after erasing a 12-point third-quarter deficit and going ahead by three early in the fourth quarter. But the Knicks fell apart in the last five minutes, and the Pacers ended their title hopes with a 106-99 victory in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series Saturday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

The Pacers will face the defending champion Heat in Miami in the Eastern Conference finals beginning Wednesday.

“It’s tough,” Anthony said. “Everybody wants to win a championship. That’s the ultimate goal. Unfortunately, our run had to stop here.”

For most of the first three quarters, Anthony got little help. He carried the Knicks and played brilliantly, but he had a rough fourth quarter. He finished with 39 points but had only four points on 2-for-7 shooting with three turnovers in the fourth.

After the Knicks took a 92-90 lead with 5:43 left, Anthony had a dunk blocked by Roy Hibbert and committed his three turnovers during a series-deciding 9-0 run by Indiana. “It was a hell of a block,” Anthony said. “Big play by Hibbert. Kind of shifted the momentum at that point.”

Iman Shumpert scored 19 points, 16 of them in the Knicks’ third-quarter comeback, and shot 5-for-6 from three-point range. J.R. Smith added 15 points but shot 4-for-15.

The Knicks believed they were championship contenders, but ultimately they were outplayed by the Pacers. Indiana again won the rebounding battle, 43-36. They shot 34-for-46 from the free-throw line to the Knicks’ 18-for-18 and 50.7 percent from the field to the Knicks’ 40.0 percent, but the Knicks stayed in the game by shooting 13-for-30 from three-point range, including 6-for-7 in a 34-point third quarter.

But Mike Woodson wouldn’t say the Knicks underachieved after a season that featured 54 wins, the Atlantic Division title and their first playoff series victory in 13 years.

“This is the first time this team has ever been assembled,” he said. “We did a lot of special things this season. To walk away from tonight and say this season was a disaster — absolutely not. Our goal was to win an NBA title. At the end of the day, we didn’t get it done. Me being the head coach, I take full responsibility for that.”

Brooklyn’s Lance Stephenson had 25 points, nine in the fourth quarter, and 10 rebounds to lead Indiana. Paul George scored 23. Hibbert had 21 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots and David West added 17 points. George Hill, who returned after missing Game 5 with a concussion, had 12 points, including four free throws in the final minute.

“You never want a team to be more aggressive than you, but they were the whole series,” Shumpert said.

“I think they were the better team,” Tyson Chandler said after fouling out with two points and six rebounds. “They beat us to the loose balls and to the rebounds and execution on both ends. They beat us.”

The Knicks had momentum in the fourth. They were up 92-90 after Smith’s three-pointer and had a chance to build on that. But Anthony was denied by Hibbert, and that ignited the Pacers and the crowd.

Stephenson scored inside, then converted Anthony’s turnover into a three-point play and later added two free throws. West capped the 9-0 run with a tip-in that made it 99-92 with 2:35 left.

Anthony made his first basket of the quarter on the next possession to bring the Knicks within five, but Stephenson’s layup made it 101-94 with 1:53 to play.

Smith’s three-point play with 1:15 left brought the Knicks within 101-97. After two foul shots by Hill, Anthony’s driving dunk made it a four-point game again. But Hill put the Pacers up 105-99 with two foul shots with 39.5 seconds to go.

The Knicks fell behind 65-53 with 8:34 left in the third quarter. But Anthony responded with a three-pointer, and his teammates then hit four straight three-pointers in a span of 1:42. Shumpert drilled three of them and Smith buried the fourth one to tie the score at 72.

Chris Copeland hit two three-pointers early in the fourth, giving the Knicks an 87-84 lead.

“It’s frustrating when you feel as though somebody comes out more aggressive than you do in the playoffs,” Smith said. “In the playoffs, you got to come out aggressive, be ready to attack. We as a team weren’t. They were. They played more physical. They’re allowed to play more physical. That’s the way they played all year. That’s how they put us away.”

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