The Boston Celtics have made a number of roster and front office changes after finishing seventh in the Eastern Conference last season.
ESPN released its preseason predictions and they have pegged the Celtics to finish the season 45-37 (.548) and slot under the Atlanta Hawks as the East’s sixth seed. This would mark an improvement of about four wins, extrapolating the Celtics’ .500 finish last year to a full 82 games.
This would put the Celtics right above the play-in tournament, just one game over the seventh-seeded and two games under the Hawks. They place The Brooklyn Nets (58-24) and Milwaukee Bucks (57-25) as a clear No. 1 and No. 2, before a second tier with the Philadelphia 76ers (50-32), Miami Heat (49-33), Hawks (47-35) and finally the Celtics.
The franchise has a new head coach in Ime Udoka after poaching him from the Brooklyn Nets and a new president of basketball operations in former head coach Brad Stevens.
Writer Tim Bontemps cited these changes as a reason for the Celtics’ placement:
Then, in his first significant move in the job, Stevens traded star guard Kemba Walker to bring back a former favorite, center Al Horford. Boston also swung a trade for Josh Richardson, signed Dennis Schroder to an inexpensive, one-year deal and hired former Nets assistant Ime Udoka to take over for Stevens as head coach.
This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!
