Kemba Walker will head into the 2019-20 season knowing his new team, the Boston Celtics, will have more than just a puncher's chance to make the playoffs. The longtime Charlotte Hornets point guard will replace Kyrie Irving after the latter bolted for the Brooklyn Nets in free agency.

The 29-year-old dynamo is still trying to grasp what it means to put on Celtics green and the quest awaiting him this looming season:

“I haven’t wrapped my mind around contending at this high level,” Walker told Shams Charania of The Athletic. “It doesn’t even sound right. I’ve been with the Hornets for eight years, and maybe one time we had some expectations. Maybe just one season; seven-, six-seed or something.

“This year, there will be expectations — and I’m excited. I don’t know how to feel, I’ve never had this feeling.”

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Walker has only made the postseason twice in his eight-year career and has never had the chance to get out of the first round. The expectations on this franchise surely are vastly different from what he experienced in Charlotte, and this wild offseason is only part of it all.

The 6-foot-1 floor general grabbed All-NBA Third-Team honors and could have lined up a supermax offer with the Hornets, but that proposition was never made. Instead he took a four-year max in Boston to have a better chance to win, and he can now achieve that dream with better and younger talent around him.

Once he gets comfortable in Celtics green, Walker will have to navigate his share of high expectations with those of the franchise and its fans, hoping he does get the chance to lead his new team to greater heights.