We are less than 24 hours away from tip-off of another NBA season and there are more things to love about the Celtics this year than ever.

Last season was pretty wild to say the least. Gordon Hayward played all of 5 minutes and never saw a second of playing time on the parquet floor. Kyrie Irving's knee failed him just in time to miss the the stretch run at the end of the year. The injury bug didn't just bite the Celtics, it devoured them. Despite all that, the Celtics still somehow found a way to come just minutes away from playing in the NBA Finals.

That leads me to my first reason to be excited about the Celtics this season.

5) LA-Bron James

LeBron James ran out on Cleveland for the second time and took his talents to LA. That means these Celtics are now the top dog in the Eastern Conference.

Reason To Be Excited:

Like I said before, the Celtics were painfully close to a trip to the NBA Finals. They were that close WITHOUT Kyrie Irving. They were that close WITHOUT Gordon Hayward. Going into last season if I would have told you that, you would never have believed me. The only thing that stood in their was was the LeBron led Cavaliers. Now that team is gone and the class of the East resides in Boston.

4) Deep Green

Last season there were a lot of questions surrounding the Celtics outside of their new big three of Gordon, Kyrie and Al Horford. We learned fairly quickly that they had a lot of talent outside of those three.

Reason To Be Excited:

Not only were Celtics fans pleasantly surprised with how much growth they saw from their young starters in Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, but the bench was putting in work too. Terry Rozier proved to be a starting caliber point guard. Along with Aron Baynes, Marcus Smart and Marcus Morris the Celtics have a second unit that could start for a lot of teams. That's a real good problem to have.

3) Jayson Tatum

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Kyrie is clearly your top dog, but after that who's next? Could it be Jayson Tatum?

Reason To Be Excited:

Tatum proved to the world that he's ready to be the next big thing in the NBA. He emphatically threw down a monster dunk on LeBron James in last year's playoffs. A playoff run that saw him become the Celtics primary scorer with Gordon and Kyrie both out. The kid is fearless and he can do it all. He can defend multiple positions, take anyone off the dribble and drain jumpers from all over the floor. This kid is bound for greatness. Don't expect him to shrink with the big guns back either. I fully expect him to shine even more.

2) Brad Stevens

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Every year he makes the list and every year he impresses me more and more. Brad Stevens is already one of the best coaches in the league.

Reason To Be Excited:

Brad has slowly become very "Belichickian," in his approach. He consistently finds areas where the team needs to improve and doesn't settle for just an ok effort. He has arguably the most talented roster he's ever had and after navigating through a myriad of injuries last year, this season should come much easier for him. His biggest problem will be finding minutes for all that talent on the roster.

1) Chemistry

Chemistry is often underrated in my eyes. There have been plenty of very talented teams that simply can't win a damn thing. This team shouldn't be one of those teams. This team should be quite the opposite.

Reason To Be Excited:

Adversity brought this team together last season. Almost the entire roster is the same this season and they're ready to go to war for one another. When I was at Celtics Media Day, you could feel the togetherness. Similarly to the Patriot's "Do Your Job," Mantra, the Celtics are all on the same page in knowing that they each have to play their role to win a championship.

HONORABLE MENTION

Gordon Hayward

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As we all know Gordon missed basically the entire campaign last season. He broke his leg and dislocated his ankle only 5 minutes into the season last year in Cleveland. It's been a long road for Gordon to get back on the floor and tonight he'll be introduced for a regular season game in front of the home crowd for the first time since signing with Boston. We'll finally see Gordon Hayward as a Celtic and that in and of itself is reason to be excited. I'm especially excited for him to be able to get back to the game finally.

PREDICTIONS/PROJECTIONS

The Celtics should be able to dominate most teams in the conference and in the league. They're very deep which helps mightily during the regular season. It'll help keep your stars from getting worn down. They'll likely win a lot of games simply because there won't be a real drop of when the bench comes into games. It should be a big year for Boston.

Record: 65-17

Standings: 1st in the Atlantic Division - 1st in the Eastern Conference

Playoffs: Beat the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals in 7 games. (Oh yes, that's Banner 18 I'm talking about)

The road to a championship starts tonight in Boston against Philadelphia. Let the games begin! (Literally).

 

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