48, 4th seed
Why so low? At least for this conversation's standards.
The division is a lot tougher this year, as the Nets are way better, the Sixers should be a bit better, and I even think the Knicks will be better than last year. The Raptors should still be awful. That doesn't account for the overall improvement in the Eastern Conference (Miami, Indiana, Chicago, Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Orlando (if they keep Dwight) should all be pretty good teams).
I fully expect Pierce and KG to not play in all of the games in back to backs. And expect both to miss some games due to injury.
Green didn't play at all last year and will have some growing pains (so to speak) and that is if he can stay healthy (do not underestimate how hard it will be for him to come back into form after not playing an entire year).
Bradley is already out and proving to be injury prone. Rondo misses games pretty much every year. Wilcox will miss games due to injury. etc.
The interior has a lot more depth, but it has yet to be seen how good that depth is, I mean Bass is starting and he really should be a backup (there is just no one better right now). Sullinger or Melo is going to have to get minutes and you never know with rookies.
Couple that with all of the new pieces and the growing pains in making them all fit and Boston's propensity to not really care that much about the regular season and seeding. I figure 46-50 wins seems about right so I split the difference and called it 48, which I figure will be the 4th seed (Miami is clearly better and then I figure 2 of these 3 will have a better record as well; Indiana, Chicago, and Brooklyn).