1. Win the Larry O’Brien Trophy

The race for the Finals out East will be a hotly contested one. If Kawhi Leonard returns to his previous form and the Sixers see improvements from Simmons and Embiid, they’ll both have genuine claims to being the Conference’s best team.

There are more questions surrounding those two teams than there is for the Celtics. The questions around Boston are more how about can they actually cohesively manage the ridiculous talent on and off the court; a factor most teams can only dream of.

The Celtics are projected to have the best record in the East by many pundits. The team’s floor would be somewhere around the 55-win mark while their ceiling could be anywhere around the 65-win range. Those projections should leave them with a top-seed finish and a likely Conference Finals berth.

FiveThirtyEight actually gives their division rivals, Toronto a greater chance at Finals and championship glory. The Raptors have the 2nd best chance of making the Finals (28 percent) compared to the Celtics who are 3rd in that area (22 percent). They were only given a slightly better likelihood to win the ultimate prize, 9 percent odds in comparison to Boston’s 7 percent.

In the month since those projections were put out, Irving and Hayward have stepped up their road to recovery, a factor which would no doubt change those odds somewhat. Either way, Boston should be aiming to make their first Finals appearance since 2010 and give whoever they face (likely the Warriors) a run for their money at the Larry O’Brien trophy.