On Monday, we made note of the fact that the New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers are clearly perceived to be better than the Boston Celtics at this point in the summer.

We also noted that the Miami Heat are looking to make improvements that could vault them ahead of the Celtics as well.

And then we made a passing mention to other contending teams in the Eastern Conference that will make life difficult for the Celtics, like the talented Orlando Magic and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

While nothing is guaranteed, especially at this point of the offseason, it seems clear that the Eastern Conference has gotten deeper, and therefore, life is going to get harder for the Celtics in the wake of trading Jaylen Brown to Philly.

I'm not a big "power rankings" guy. In fact, I generally hate "list-based" content, but I did take notice on Monday that NBA.com had the Celtics ranked as the No. 6 team in the Eastern Conference right now.

They had the Knicks at No. 1 with the 76ers at No. 2. They had Cleveland at No. 3, and then they had the Toronto Raptors at No. 4, which makes sense as long as the Kawhi Leonard trade goes through. And they had the Detroit Pistons at No. 5.

Now, I didn't mention Detroit yesterday, but that was an egregious mistake on my part considering they earned the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs and appear to only be getting better as Cade Cunningham progresses.

And of course, this list doesn't account for Miami making further improvements and it doesn't account for the Indiana Pacers getting better again with the return of Tyrese Haliburton. Remember, Indiana was in the NBA Finals just two years ago and could be a player again as well. NBA.com had Indiana right behind Boston at No. 7 and Miami at No. 8.

What does it mean? Well, right now? Nothing. But the writing is on the wall. The East has gotten better, it's gotten deeper, and it's continuing to improve in the offseason.

Could the Celtics run through the regular season and earn a great seed again in the playoffs? Of course they could, but the competition is clearly ratcheting up. And with that, there will be pressure on Jayson Tatum to lead the way.

The 76ers are set to get the maximum number of nationally-televised games in 2026-27, which means the Celtics are likely to get less. This could also impact how the C's are treated on Opening Night and on Christmas Day.

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