2018-19 NBA Season Preview: Boston Celtics

Predictions for the season

Thus far, we've established how the Celtics are possibly the most well-rounded roster in basketball. They have the top-quality talent needed to be an elite NBA team, and there is a fair chance that their young studs Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum continue to improve and push their game above and beyond what they showed us in the 2018 NBA playoffs.

As probably the most well-rounded roster in all of basketball (in terms of overall depth), the sky is the limit for this iteration of the Celtics. Irving, Hayward and Horford are almost locked to feature in the All-Star game at this point, and in a LeBron-less Eastern Conference, they are legitimately the core with the greatest amount of playoff experience and ability to get it done.

I predict a rather slow start to the regular season that ends at a canter with the Celtics winning between 58-62 games and the first seed in the Eastern Conference. They will be regarded as favourites in any playoff series they play, and are bookies' odds-on favourites to finish runners-up to the Warriors this season for a reason. A 5-game exit in the Finals is my prediction for this team.