Boston Celtics: 5 takeaways from 2017-18 Media Day

4. The Celtics are a young team, but have great veteran leadership

Despite finishing atop the Eastern Conference last season, Danny Ainge has opted to replace almost the entire roster. There are a lot of new faces on this year’s Boston Celtics squad, and Brad Stevens feels like he took a new job, via Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe.

"“In a lot of ways I feel like I took a new job. Because as a coach, you’re always thinking about kind of, ‘OK, what do you need to get better from last year? How do we need to improve?’ And when I’m looking at our stats and talking to our team about how we want to improve, well, 10 of the guys are going to be looking at me like, ‘I wasn’t here last year.’”"

Al Horford is the only remaining starter from last year’s squad, and five players on the Celtics’ roster haven’t even played in an NBA game. On top of that, Marcus Smart is the longest-tenured Celtic, and he hasn’t even begun his fourth season.

The Celtics have a lot of guys that are at the beginning of their careers, but they also have some experienced veterans. Al Horford has played in the NBA for 10 years and competed in the Eastern Conference Finals for the Hawks and Celtics.

Gordon Hayward is already a seven-year veteran that has been through multiple playoff runs too. Kyrie Irving has represented the East in the last three NBA Finals. Stevens has quickly become known as one of the NBA’s best coaches and Ainge won his first NBA title back in 1984 with Larry Bird‘s Celtics.

The Boston Celtics are a very young team, but they have a group of veteran, battle-tested leaders.