Jameer Nelson and the Family Band

Now is the dead time in the NBA schedule -- if there is one. The schedule is out, free agency has quieted and everyone is in a holding pattern until training camps open in late September (a scant six weeks away).

The endless prognosticating has begun as The Orlando Sentinel talked to several "experts" about how the Eastern Conference will shake out.

The big concern it seems in the Magic's third place finish in the Sentinel's poll is how the team will come together with so many new pieces. That is an admitted concern seeing that there will be two new members to the starting lineup and many new players coming off the bench.

Before Rashard Lewis' suspension, I thought the first month of the season would tell us how the team was coming together and whether the title was realistic this year or for the christening of the Amway Center -- let alone for both years.

Now with Lewis out for the first 10 games, Orlando is going to have to band together quickly again and gel to keep up with what I am sure will be fast starts from Cleveland and Boston.

Chemistry will go a long way.

Building that chemistry starts this week in Philadelphia.

It will not get mentioned anywhere outside of Orlando, but it is probably the most significant week for the team and its development. In a week in Nelson's hometown and at his expense, Dwight Howard, Vince Carter, Rashard Lewis and most of the other members of the team will work out together, play together and bond together.

This is not the fake picture-taking of the LeBron James gang or the intense scare and love-me-because-you-fear-me camaraderie of Kevin Garnett's band. This is where the Magic get their spunk and become a family.

I have never really heard of a team doing something like this. And entering its third or fourth year, it has truly become a success. Something the team looks forward to and the reason why Nelson has become the true captain of the team.

A lot of questions about Orlando will be solved this week behind the closed doors of a gym, weight room and paint ball facility. It is where the team truly becomes a team.

And where the road to a title truly begins.