CONTEND: Boston Celtics Power Rankings REVEALED | Derrick White CRITICAL

Waves of emotion, I think, this offseason, right? As soon as Jalen Brown was traded, a lot of people said, well, that's it.

Celtics, they're going to stink.

They're not going to be as good as they were with JB.

This is going to be a disaster.

And then as more time passed, it was, well, it won't be that bad.

Maybe the Celtics will actually be somewhat competitive.

And I think after that Paul George and Mike Conley press conference, There are a number of people that follow the Celtics that are ready for war, so to speak, and believe that this team could actually be good.

So what are reasonable expectations heading into camp? That's what I want to talk about tonight.

To start, then we'll get to Derek White and how critical he is to this operation.

And then we will look at the guards and the bigs for the 26-27 Celtics.

Kevin O'Connor of Yahoo came out with his rankings recently.

He had the Celtics ranked ninth overall in the NBA.

He had them ranked fourth in the Eastern Conference.

Michael Pena from the Ringer had the Celtics as the fourth best team in the NBA and the second best team in the Eastern Conference.

Now, I would lean towards Kevin O'Connor and his take more than I would lean towards Michael Pena.

Pena, to me, this is like the absolute ceiling if everything goes right for the Celtics this year.

Now, could they be the fourth best team in the NBA? Sure, anything is possible, a la Kevin Garnett.

Could they be the second best team in the Eastern Conference? Absolutely.

That is possible that they could be the second best team in the Eastern Conference, but I don't think that is likely.

I think that's only likely if everything falls together.

Now, what would that look like? Paul George staying healthy, looking like he did against the Celtics in the playoffs several months ago.

Ugo, Shireman, Walsh, one of those three guys making a giant leap this year.

Derek White makes shots.

Talk about that more later.

Peyton Pritchard is as good, if not better, with more opportunities that he's going to get this year.