By Kyle Taylor, sports columnist

Rejoice, dust off those jerseys and buckle up because NBA (preseason) basketball is back. Finally. With seemingly every NBA team involved in a blockbuster trade this offseason and Nike now in charge of the NBA jerseys, we have officially stepped into a new era in the NBA. And it’s one that the Celtics are poised to take control of, which is why they will win 60 games during the 2017-2018 season, narrowly edging out the Cavaliers for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. Your eyes read that correctly.

The Celtics played their premiere preseason game on Monday evening, showcasing for the first time the additions of Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, who join returner Al Horford to form our new-era ‘Big Three.’ I emphasize that Al Horford is a returner because while the 2017 Boston Celtics won 53 games, achieved the number one seed in the conference and made the Eastern Conference finals, there are only four members of this current day team that were there for that. Four. Only one of them, Horford, is a certain starter.

That is not the type of turnover you typically see from team that finds great success with whom they have, but if you listen to other fans, we were a “fake” top team anyway. No one was afraid of the Celtics, but anyone could lose to them. Regardless, all that is just to say there are certainly a lot of unknowns with this team.

So who do we know? Let’s start with Kyrie Irving. Irving is one of the most dominant scorers in the NBA. Because of his unbelievable shooting ability and knack for destroying defenders off the dribble, he is often pigeonholed as nothing more than an isolation scorer. He excelled in this role for the Cleveland Cavaliers, particularly alongside LeBron James who often drew the double team.

But that was his primary function in that system under Tyronn Lue. In the Brad Stevens’ offense, he will be called on to play a very similar role that allowed Isaiah Thomas to flourish, but with even more open looks. Irving shot 40 percent from three last season — to Thomas’ 38 percent — and the eye test will show you that many of these are unassisted and contested, driving his percentage down. If you don’t trust the eye test, advanced metrics show that 53 percent of Irving’s threes were assisted, while Thomas’ had 60 percent of his assisted and Stephen Curry, who shot only marginally better from three last season than Irving, had over 63 percent assisted, according to Basketball Reference.

In an offense heavily reliant on ball movement, Irving can expect to get more open looks than he did in Cleveland, which can expectantly raise that percentage. For a player who already shoots the ball incredibly well, Irving can raise his game to the next level. He is now the alpha-dog on a winning team for the first time in his career.

Next, the reunion of Gordon Hayward and Brad Stevens. Why did Hayward move to Boston? Well…the Butler (University) did it, where Stevens and Hayward had a historic March Madness run together that almost culminated in a championship. I desperately wanted Hayward to come to the Celtics in 2014, the last time he was a free agent and he wasn’t even that good then, honestly, but I became enamored with him after a great stretch of games I had while using him in NBA 2K. I remember being crushed when he returned to the Jazz, but just knew that next time free agency came around he’d make the wicked smart move. Three years later and poised to have an All-Star season, all I can say is better late than never.

Hayward has improved in scoring every year since entering the league, and you can expect another jump in a comfortable offense under his former head. An underrated defensive player, Hayward will be able to match up guarding some of the premiere small-forwards in the league out on the perimeter and prove he belongs among the list of elite small forwards with LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard. Pair that with his well-established playmaking and shooting, and you have yourselves an Eastern Conference All-Star.

Aside from those impact players, for the first time in a long time I can say the Boston Celtics have a rebounder on the roster in Aron Baynes. While “small-ball” may be the NBA of the future, the Celtics reality of the past few seasons has been getting absolutely beaten down, bodied and embarrassed in the rebounding battle. Baynes may not be asked to do much, but if the big fella can stop the opposition from taking four shots every time they’re on offense, I’ll be happy to not scream at my TV anymore.

Jayson Tatum makes all of this even sweeter. The Celtics found themselves in the unbelievably rare position of having the first pick in the draft while also being an elite team. They turned that  number 1 pick into rookie Jayson Tatum, who has been likened to a young Paul Pierce by Pierce himself. We’ll go with that. He may not have played a minute of regular season basketball yet, but adding a great talent and prospect without giving anything up is awesome.

Jaylen Brown, Terry Rozier and Marcus Smart are the remaining returners from the previous season, and all are expected to play significant minutes and contribute. The young returners can thrive by improving on their defense and three-point shooting, as they will be filling in the role of covering the primary guards on the opposing team — don’t count on Kyrie Irving as a defensive upgrade.

We have a rebounder in Aron Baynes, and enough 6’6 to 6’10 wing players to allow for the switch-heavy defensive scheme that makes the Golden State Warriors an elite defensive team. Some may say the Celtics equal the Warriors if not better. Some.

Sure, a lot of the remaining players are rookies and just general question marks ­— see Marcus Morris— but these variables are undoubtedly very-able to contribute to the winning team that the Celtics have put together. Did you even watch the preseason game?

Adding that the that the Celtics are in the weak Eastern Conference, playing most of their games against rebuilding teams, it’s like handing out free wins. By the time the post season hits, the Celtics will be hitting their strides to tear their way straight to the Eastern Conference Finals to challenge LeBron.

The Celtics pulled together one of the fastest rebuilds you may ever see, going from the Pierce –Garnett – Allen era to a 53-win team last season in just 4 years. Their success and wild over-achieving cannot soon be forgotten, but going from that to this so quickly is very exciting.

Strap in, because it looks like the grass is greener on this side.