Orlando Magic News for September 3rd: An Eastern Conference Forecast; David Stern Addresses Twitter

Eastern Conference champs
ESPN.com's panel of "experts" predict the Eastern Conference champion for the upcoming season and to no one's surprise, the Cleveland Cavaliers are tabbed as the team to beat. As for the Orlando Magic, here's the breakdown.

There are other factors to consider, of course. Orlando had the league's best defense last season, on a per-possession basis, and it has an emerging superstar in Howard plus three recent All-Stars -- VC, Jameer Nelson and Rashard Lewis -- and a deep bench surrounding D-12. And the Magic did, after all, beat the Celtics and Cavs on their way to the Finals.

But you know what? All of this, including Hedo versus Vince, might be moot, because according to most of our panel, Cleveland or Boston gets the last word.

NBA preparing Twitter guidelines
Marc J Spears of Yahoo! Sports shares important information regarding NBA commissioner David Stern, Twitter and its relevance to the league.

NBA commissioner David Stern told Yahoo! Sports on Thursday the league will soon follow the NFL in announcing Twitter guidelines and other social media restrictions for its players and coaches.

"Obviously, there is a happy medium between tweeting before the game and tweeting from our bench during the game," Stern said by phone. "You want to make sure that pop culture doesn’t intrude on what brought us here, which is the game, and that we show the right respect for the game."

The NFL announced its own guidelines on Monday by restricting players, coaches and football operations personnel – or anyone representing them – from using social media networks like Twitter and Facebook from 90 minutes before kickoff to the end of traditional media interviews after games. NFL game officials are banned from using social media at all times.

Stern described the NBA’s guidelines as "nothing too serious."

Create-a-caption: Sérieusement, Mickaël?
J.E. Skeets of Ball Don't Lie holds a create a caption competition, with Mickael Pietrus as the main subject. If you're bored, try submitting a caption.

Team Continuity, Part II
Neil Paine of Basketball-Reference continues his look into team continuity, where today he examines the smallest % of common individual possessions used between players on a team in consecutive seasons.