As the hype train heads towards Boston, let’s take it with a grain of salt.

The Boston Celtics are coming off an impressive season, have a solid future, great coach and were able to land a big name free agent. As everything seems to fall in place for the Celtics the hype surrounding them for this upcoming season is growing, here are three reasons to remain grounded with your hopes for the Celtics this season.

Eastern Conference –

As NBA fans, it seems we always hear about the ‘massive disparity’ between the Western and Eastern Conferences. Although there may be some truth to the west being slightly better, I rarely hear anybody note how competitive the Eastern Conference is. With the recent addition of center Al Horford, there is now a lot of talk that the Celtics are the most likely suitor to square off with the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers in the ECF. I think it’s important to note that the Celtics weren’t the only team that improved this offseason. Also, even the teams who lost key guys such as the: Bulls, Hawks and Heat will not fall too far and remain somewhat competitive.

Out of the eastern conference teams that were able to improve their roster this offseason, I think the Celtics improved theirs the least. Obviously the fact the Celtics were already a good team plays a role in this take, but certainly the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks drastically improved their roster.

For as much as the internet already loves to troll the Knicks for adding perpetually injured players like Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, that’s going to be a solid roster. Fans seem to forget how good Carmelo Anthony, Noah and Rose are individually and the casual fans are still snoozing on Kristaps Porzingis. I think it’s reasonable to proceed with caution when facing off with that team.

Meanwhile, the Pacers were able to add Jeff Teague, Thaddeus Young and Al Jefferson to help take the pressure off of superstar, Paul George. The Pacers only finished three games behind the Celtics and were able to significantly improve in three positions, while the Celtics only improved one position. The combination of a proven star, in George, and excellent complementary players in: Teague, Ellis, Turner, Young and Jefferson is going to be tough to handle. Unless the Celtics are able to add another star, my prediction for the ECF is going to be the revival of the King James vs King George rivalry.

Knicks v Celtics is gonna be good.

Knicks v Bulls is gonna be great fun.

Knicks v Pacers should be good, too.

A lot of old rivalries in the East should be pretty good this coming season.

callmened wrote:

nixluva wrote:Celtics are a tough team. Especially in the regular season when you can't always prepare for them. They are pretty much all about Isaiah Thomas. Once a team shuts him down the rest of the team is fairly pedestrian.

dont forget al horford and their tremendous team defense

Oh yeah their defense is one of the things that makes the Celtics so tough. Horford will fit right in. Its gonna be interesting to see which teams improved the most.