Here are 10 observations/hot-button issues in the Eastern Conference this season:

1. The return of Grant Hill
Yes, we think it's the real thing this time around. Grant Hill has looked basketball-ready and basketball-worthy in the exhibition season. Oh yeah, and the foot doesn't hurt anymore. No team in the conference has an add-on like this guy. Orlando won 44 games last year with virtually no contribution from Hill. If he is able to go wire to wire, albeit with a few pit stops along the way, who's to say Orlando won't be one of the elite in the East?

	Can all be well with the Bucks with Anthony Mason still in uniform?

2. Harmony in Milwaukee?
You almost expect the Bucks to sing Kumbaya every time they take the floor. Then you remember they still have Anthony Mason to moan about the lack of a low-post game and Sam Cassell to moan about not getting enough shots and George Karl to moan about anything and everything. The Bucks' historic meltdown may be old news -- let's hope for their sake that it is -- but simply excising Glenn Robinson from the mix can't be the panacea. Or can it? Or was it really Darvin Ham all along and nobody knew it?

3. Strange jerseys in Gund Arena
Just wondering, but how well do you think the colors of St. Vincent-St. Mary in Akron go with those electric blue seats in Cleveland? What's the over/under on the first time someone shows up at a Cavaliers' game wearing a LeBron James jersey? Christmas? New Year's? MLK Day? Look at it this way: James' high school games are going to attract a lot more pro scouts than most Cavs games. Cleveland can only hope that the Ping-Pong balls bounce its way, which, of course, rarely happens. Just ask Rick Pitino.

4. New Orleans ... a twin nightmare for coaches
It's bad enough that coaches have to go into New Orleans and beat what might be the best team in the conference before what should be an appreciative and supportive crowd. It's doubly depressing if said coach has to think about where his players might go in their spare time in the Crescent City. The French Quarter is an easy walk from most hotels. The French Quarter stays open really, really late. The French Quarter has temptation at every door. The Hornets just might end up as the league's dominant home team.

5. The new Sixth Man
Michael Jordan has been an MVP, a Defensive Player of the Year, a Rookie of the Year. How about Sixth Man? Jordan, for now, seems inclined to come off the bench for the new-look Wizards, and that makes him the early leader for the award simply because of who he is. And if his game hasn't deteriorated appreciably over the summer, he could be a potent weapon against many second-unit guys. Somehow, however, he will find a way to be on the floor at the end of close games, don't you think?

6. The Answer Man
Guess who was second in the league in assists in the exhibition season? None other than Allen Iverson, checking in at 6.1 a game. He also was fourth in scoring at 21 a game. Sixers coach Larry Brown told us a month ago that Iverson was more committed than ever. He said he envisioned Iverson playing some point guard this season. A more balanced Philadelphia offense is an absolute must, and the additions of Keith Van Horn and Todd MacCulloch can't hurt there. What does hurt are the injuries -- Derrick Coleman and Monty Williams are already down -- and the fact that the recent Sixers' success was forged on the defensive end, not the other end. And a lot of those defenders are elsewhere.

7. Vin Baker fitting in with Boston
The Celtics made a colossal gamble in acquiring Vin Baker, mainly because they have to know that he'll be impossible to trade over the next three years. (Then again, that's what everyone thought about Juwan Howard, too.) What does it say when, after four weeks of training camp, that Shammond Williams is the ex-Sonic who is impressing the fans, coaching staff and teammates? It says that it's only October -- and there's a lot of fit-in time remaining. Logic says it's time to cut Vin some slack. You wonder if the Boston fans will be that patient.

8. The mess at 33rd and Eighth
The Knicks thought last year was rock bottom? They basically have the same team back, due to the unfortunate injury to Antonio McDyess. They also have what basically amounts to a lame-duck coach, their best player fuming with management, the same point guard mess as before and no size up front. Other than that, they look a lot like the 72-73 Lakers. Here's some advice to GM Scott Layden: go out and hire ML Carr to coach your team. He would have no trouble steering it to a 15-win season with the prospect of adding James as the carrot. He did it before in Boston and he's a master at it.

9. Jerry who?
The Pistons cruised through the exhibition season with an 8-0 record. No big deal, right? The NBA has nine individual statistical categories that it regularly releases and updates. The release that came out at the end of the exhibition season had exactly two Pistons in any of the categories: the redoubtable Ben Wallace leading the league in rebounding and Zeljko Rebraca as the seventh best free-throw shooter. There was no one in the top 20 in scoring or assists. The loss of Jerry Stackhouse might eventually come back to haunt the Pistons, but they appear as focused and determined as ever. Still, someone has got to be the go-to guy, right?

10. Oh yeah, the Nets
The defending conference champions -- my Norton anti-virus alert sounds every time I type those words -- appear to have improved with the additions of Dikembe Mutombo and Rodney Rogers. (We'd also like to say Chris Childs, but he apparently is on the same dietary regimen as Shawn Kemp.) They play with the confidence of champions. Skeptics will note that Mutombo is not exactly Bill Walton when it comes to passing, and that a lot of the Nets' success last year was due to its Princeton-style offense. But their all-for-one, one-for-all approach looked like it was still working well in the exhibition season. They don't appear to miss Keith Van Horn at all. Still, if you envision a Nets-Pistons playoff series, the first team to 70 automatically wins.

Peter May, who covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.