Now that LeBron James is no longer a resident of the Eastern Conference, it seems like a great time for the said conference to have a good, old royal rumble to determine who will rule it next. Over the past eight years, James’ teams (Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers) have had a monopoly of East titles.

It was usually a practice in futility for other teams to try to wrest the East title from the Heat and the Cavs the past several seasons, but with James gone, the East is expected to enjoy an air of uncertainty that has been long absent.

The Boston Celtics are currently installed as the favorites to be the next East champions, which makes a lot of sense, as they managed to push a James-led Cavs team to the edge last playoffs despite not having injured stars Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. That said, the status of the Celtics as the chalks to rule the East has not caused any degree of excitement to Boston general manager Danny Ainge at all. When told about his team’s great chances of winning the conference, Ainge sounded irked more than anything else, per Fred Katz of MassLive.

“I'm not sure what you're asking,” Ainge responded when asked for his thoughts on James heading West. “What do I care about the Eastern Conference? I don't really care about that. We're trying to win championships.”

The Celtics fell a win short of making it to the NBA Finals last season and most likely becoming the runners-up to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals. With Irving and Hayward expected to suit up next season for the Celtics, Ainge is definitely aspiring to add another NBA title banner to TD Garden’s rafters.