Yeah, you need to be ready to retool the team some what, if you don't land a weak D2.
Something I seen people do is just before the playoffs they go all out purchase big players that are pretty much overkill, even go red in salary but this are players that would fit fine in the next lvl.
That way they hit the floor running, I thought about doing that my self, but you need to have the right arena size other wise it won't work.
I have been in D2 a few times my self, all by mistake ha ha ha ha, and that's not joke.
I'm not really planning on going to D2 this season, if I do it will by mistake, I had tanked in the playoffs before
to void going to D2 and still ended up going ha ha ha ha