The Boston Celtics played phenomenal basketball last season en route to the franchise's 18th NBA championship. And it wasn't just the incredible talent and depth of the squad that made it all possible.

There is a special chemistry and camaraderie in this team. It's difficult to quantify these things. There is no advanced measure of team chemistry or how much players like each other.

But if such a statistic had existed, the Celtics almost certainly would have led the league.

This group loves playing together, and that's one of the reasons why superstar forward Jayson Tatum is so excited to get back together and start the team's title defense.

“I had so much fun with our group last year,” Tatum told NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg at Media Day, as seen in the video player above. “I've been on teams where there's not a lot of cohesion, so you know when it's something special. We had so much fun playing together and we had so much fun all season last year and created so many memories.

“We have achieved something that will bind us together forever. I missed being around the coaches and the guys on the team, so I’m really happy to be around them again.”

It's rare for a team to have the kind of chemistry the Celtics built in 2023-24, and it's even rarer for a team to bring back almost its entire roster the season after winning the Finals.

Boston's top 11 players (in terms of minutes played per game) from last season are all back for the 2024-25 season, which begins next Tuesday against the New York Knicks at TD Garden.

The Celtics made a few additions over the summer, most notably rookie Baylor Scheierman and veteran Lonnie Walker IV, but virtually the entire title-winning squad is back.

This gives the Celtics an advantage over other contenders who added or removed key players in the offseason and have not yet developed good chemistry.