It might sound crazy to say this, but we’re two days away from the Boston Celtics returning to the basketball court for a game against another.

The NBA preseason is already underway, and the Celtics make their debut in the exhibition season on Wednesday night at FedExForum in Memphis to take on the Grizzlies.

Tip-off is set for 8:00 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston. And unlike recent years, there’s legitimate intrigue around what this team will look like when they hit the floor for mostly meaningless basketball.

That’s because Boston underwent a massive makeover this offseason, watching key pieces from their 2024 NBA Finals-winning team find new homes as the team did everything they could to get under the dreaded second apron to avoid major penalties for being over the collectively-bargained spending threshold.

- Future Hall of Fame center Al Horford signed a multi-year deal with the Warriors

- Future Hall of Fame guard Jrue Holiday was shipped off to Portland to help get the team under the second apron

- Unicorn center Kristaps Porzingis was shipped off to Atlanta in a similar move with similar motivations

- Luke Kornet, an important depth piece for Boston’s front court, signed a four-year deal with San Antonio worth $41 million

Add in the fact that All-World forward Jayson Tatum remains out while rehabbing his surgically repaired Achilles tendon, and it will be a whole new world for Celtics fans once the 2025-26 regular season gets underway on October 22 against the 76ers.

If nothing else, this preseason is going to help fans familiarize themselves with a roster full of new faces - faces that are going to be commanding the bulk of the minutes moving forward.

Before the preseason gets underway, here’s six things you should be watching for with the Boston Celtics during their four-game exhibition schedule:

1. The impact of Payton Pritchard’s added workload

I asked Google Gemini what they thought of defending Sixth Man of the Year’s ability as a defender:

“​​Payton Pritchard has transformed into a surprisingly solid defender by leveraging his relentless energy, lateral quickness, and strong physical base to fight through contact and stay in front of opponents. While he still faces limitations due to his undersized frame and wingspan, his high effort and ability to "annoy" opponents with relentless pressure have made him a valuable and trusted defender, turning a potential liability into a strength for the Boston Celtics.”

The one thing AI is not accounting for here is Pritchard’s upcoming uptick in minutes.

Last season, he saw a career-high of 28.4 minutes per game. At that mark, the 6-foot-1 guard was able to avoid being exposed defensively on a nightly basis. But make no mistake about it - when Pritchard saw extended minutes last season, teams attacked him. And in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, Knicks guard Jalen Brunson was attacking both Pritchard and Holiday on his way to a five-game upset of the No. 2 seed.

Over the last two seasons, Pritchard has become one of the best instant offense guards in the league, helping give the Celtics championship-level depth en route to their 18th championship in franchise history. But what does that offensive bag look like with an extra 10-12 minutes a game of starter-level defense added to his plate?

How he’ll look with more time on the floor, both on offense and defense, is one of the most interesting storylines to follow heading into 2025-26.

2. Jaylen Brown as lead banana

With Tatum out, Brown is the undisputed “guy” for this team.

We all know Brown is capable of star-level heights. He’s a one-time All-NBA selection (2023), and has been voted to the All-Star game four different times (2021, 2023-25) in the first nine years of his career. But dwarfing all of that is the run he went on in 2024, winning both Eastern Conference Finals MVP and NBA Finals MVP as Boston’s best player that postseason. They don’t win that title without Brown’s high level offense down the stretch.

With that said, all of those accomplishments have come while sharing a floor with Tatum - a player who has been a first-team All-NBA selection each of the last four seasons.

Will Brown be able to elevate without his running mate? Can the 28-year-old have a run like Scottie Pippen did while Michael Jordan was playing baseball?

It’s time to show why at the time of signing, you were given the largest contract in NBA history. The runway is there for Brown to prove he can be a No. 1 on a team at the professional level.

IMPORTANT CAVEAT - Brown won’t have the supporting cast around him that Tatum has had over the last five years. It would be disingenuous to say Tatum’s success wasn’t at least in part because of the great teammates he had around him. Brown’s team this season is good, not great.

Is he capable of elevating his teammates? If you think so, MVP odds for Brown are available. And according to OddsTrader, the number for Brown in the MVP market is all the way up to +30000 at BetMGM. That’s incredible value for a player that’s going to drive a majority of Boston’s offense with Tatum out of the picture.

We’ll find out soon into the regular season what this all looks like for the temporary lead banana in Boston.

3. A new-look frontcourt

Porzingis, Horford and Kornet are all gone, and you don’t have Tatum to help switch on bigs, either.

What the heck is the frontcourt going to look like in Boston in 2025-26?

Expect to see a heavy dose of Neemias Queta, potentially looking at a starting role after showing flashes at times off the bench over the last two seasons. At 26 years old, the five-year veteran has seen his minutes per game increase each and every season. As the incumbent big man having familiarity with Boston’s defensive system, it would be a shock if Queta isn’t given the chance to start this fall.

Queta will be joined in the frontcourt by backup bigs like newcomers Chris Boucher and Luka Garza, as well as former rotation player Xavier Tillman.

If that doesn’t sound like a championship mix to you, you’re not alone.

This is going to be the weakness of this team in 2025-26.

4. What does this team have in Jordan Walsh?

The third-year pro out of Arkansas came into the league with high expectations for Boston. Given his length and athleticism, Walsh was thought to be a guy that could help stretch the Celtics’ defense early in his career, even if the rotation was littered with All-Star veterans.

Two years under his belt, and Walsh has yet to become an impactful player for this team.

But with a roster now looking for guys to step up, Walsh will have the runway to take a leap, if he’s ready and able to do so.

The 21-year-old’s comments during training camp show he’s well-aware of the need for a breakout season.

“You’ve got to have the mentality to do it,” Walsh said on Friday. “Everybody wants to score. Everybody wants to be that guy, but every team needs somebody who’s reliable enough to make the team or build the team, be the connector piece for everybody. So that’s the role I’m trying to take on.

“As everybody knows, the more we get [Jaylen Brown] the ball, the more we get guys like [Jayson Tatum] the ball, the higher we have a chance of winning. We’re trying to involve them whenever they’re in the corner or out the way.”

Walsh doesn’t need to be a star. But if he can be an effective role player this season, it will go a long way in determining what his future in Boston looks like.

5. New offense, who dis?

Something Boston’s new-look roster has been built around this offseason is the idea of a newfound uptempo offensive style after ranking 30th in the NBA in pace in 2024-25.

Wednesday’s preseason debut will be our first look at this much-discussed new-look offense.

Without Tatum being the ball-stopper he is, (that’s no disrespect, it’s just how he plays), Boston is going to look to create more scoring opportunities earlier in the shot clock. Which, if you follow this team, should not come as a surprise, as head coach Joe Mazzulla once famously said early in his tenure in Boston that the most important stat in basketball is three-point attempt rate.

“You could tell right since I got here that that’s the focus this year,” Garza told the media at training camp. “That what we want to do is get up and down and push the pace and get into actions early and be able to move the ball around and score and kind of use all sides of the floor while doing that.

“I think coach said today, we’re not just gonna play like that, we’re gonna practice like that. So, that was evident from the structure of the practice.”

Even with the Celtics playing slower than anyone else in the NBA last season, they were still among the league-leaders in offensive efficiency by almost every single metric. But when you have Tatum dictating the bulk of your scoring, you’re always going to be towards the top of this list regardless of how fast-or-slow you play.

But with Tatum out of the fold, this team is forced to find new ways to score.

“Think of a NASCAR pit stop where you just don’t stop moving,” Tillman told the media at camp. “And it’s just like as soon as you go in, the guys are exchange, exchange and we’re out. That’s what it is. As soon as we cross half court we’re on it.”

The roster might look different, but expect the biggest change this season to be how this offense operates in a world sans Tatum.

6. Will Anfernee Simons thrive with Joe Mazzulla?

Simons was traded to the Celtics this summer as a part of the trade that sent Holiday to Portland, and he’ll have the opportunity to be a massive part of the Celtics offense in 2025-26.

At 26 years old, Simons spent each of his first seven seasons with the Blazers, showing flashes along the way as a player who could one day be among the best three-point shooters in the NBA. He’s a 38.1% career three-point shooter, and was twice over 40% on the season - 42.6% in 2020-21, and 40.5% in 2021-22.

There’s clearly something there for Mazzulla to harness. And with the team looking to implore a new fast-paced, logic would tell you Mazzulla will be looking at Simons as someone to help huck three-pointers early and often.

Make no mistake about it, Simons is far from a household name. When you play for Portland, you need to have a Damien Lillard-level career arc to be on the radar of the casual NBA fan. Simons hasn’t had that, and his team hasn’t been to the postseason since his third year in the league. The numbers tell you he’s someone with the potential to impact winning. But at this point, how can we really know?

2025-26 is ripe with opportunity for Simons, entering a contract-year while playing for a team in desperate need of secondary scoring. A player with his skillset in this type of environment could be in line to make himself some serious cash next summer.

With Simons playing on an expiring deal, there was thought this summer that the 6-foot-3 guard could be moved before even playing a game in Boston. But with training camp underway, that no longer appears to be on the table.

Where Simons fits in the rotation with a guard group that includes Pritchard, Derrick White, and Baylor Scheierman will be one of the most interesting storylines to monitor early this season.

Wednesday will be our first chance to see Simons in this new version of Mazzulla Ball.

Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.