Palpable.
That's how best to describe the buzz among Boston Celtics fans following the news of Ime Udoka's hiring. Here we had one of the brightest young assistant coaches and a former player with genuine NBA experience, stepping into his first head coaching job, bringing a wave of modernized ideas on how basketball should be played.
Or, at least, that's what we thought.
When you've spent seven years learning from the incredible Gregg Popovich, then another year under Doc Rivers, before spending your final season as an assistant sitting next to offensive visionary Mike D'Antoni, people are going to have expectations.