Boston Celtics: 5 big goals for 2018-19 NBA season

1. Make the NBA Finals

The Celtics have a real shot at going far this season. It appears that the real threats to compete with them in the Eastern Conference will be the 76ers and the Raptors. The Raptors should do well, assuming a healthy Kawhi Leonard shows up.

There’s also an argument to be made that the Washington Wizards, Indiana Pacers and the Milwaukee Bucks are teams with something to say. But for now, Toronto and Philadelphia look to be the locks in the top-three with Boston.

The Celtics already have the best defense in the league and could improve more this season. It also appears they will be getting a healthy Irving and Hayward to start the season. That alone pushes them ahead of any team in the East.

Again, they must stay healthy and play as well as they did last year. To think that this team made the Eastern Conference Finals with all the injuries and still forced a Game 7 against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers says a lot about how good they are.

Of course the top goal for any team is to win the championship, but let’s not get too far ahead. The Celtics are a good team and they could very well do that, but that also means they’d need to take down any team that comes out of the Western Conference. There’s a pretty good chance that that’ll be the Golden State Warriors, and that is a monumental challenge for anyone.

The Boston Celtics have a legitimate chance of going far this season and that all depends on whether they can follow these five goals. If they do so, they could very well find themselves in the NBA Finals or even holding the Larry O’Brien Trophy.