LAS VEGAS -- There's a different texture to summer league this July. Coming on the heels of Team USA's circus here in Las Vegas, it felt a little bit like an afterparty than a main event. No. 1 overall pick Anthony Davis left with the Olympians, while Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Austin Rivers were shut down after one and two games, respectively.

Oddities aside, the 10-day festival of hoops still served as an industry summit, with owners, front-office executives, agents, scouts and current players dropping into town to talk shop. Whether they're huddled in the upper reaches of Aisle 119 in Cox Pavilion to hash out a deal, or just schmoozing at a bar on the Las Vegas Strip, the conversation was as lively as ever.

Here were some of the headline themes that dominated the chatter:

The Dwight Howard saga

Ask three NBA executives and you'll get five opinions about where Dwight Howard will land.

Some believe that the drama is playing out in the Lakers' favor. In their trademark fashion, the Lakers will show up late to the party but still leave with the best-looking date, just as they did in the Steve Nash Sweepstakes. "The Lakers aren't his first choice, but they're his best choice," one executive said. "And the Magic know they need Dwight on board to get the most in return."

Others feel Orlando is content to wait, and many of them have quickly become admirers of new Magic general manager Rob Hennigan. "He's not in a hurry," an NBA executive said. "He has a very cool attitude, as if he knows something the rest of the league doesn't know. It makes you wonder, is there a third wave of suitors out there? Is he holding out for [James] Harden or [Serge] Ibaka?"

Every executive agreed that, despite his petulance, Howard is worth a ton. "He's an emotional midget," one said. "But he's worth moving a roster for."

The end of traditional positions

Most professional organizations have a diversity of opinion on a given issue or philosophy. Many of those inside front offices who have espoused a broader interpretation of what it means to be an NBA power forward, shooting guard or center feel vindicated by the way in which the Miami Heat won the title.

"The NBA is a pick-and-roll game, not a post game, so you need guys who have defined skills regardless of their size," one scout said. "The league has been that way for a long time, but we ignored it because the Lakers and Celtics were winning, so size seemed like it matter. We told ourselves that you needed to be big and long to win."

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It's not that rebounding and height aren't valuable commodities. Watching your 6-foot-2 shooting guard rotate to close on a 6-foot-10 sharpshooter is as painful as ever, but coaches, execs and scouts uniformly maintain that valuing -- or devaluing -- a player strictly because of his size is an antiquated exercise.

The dawn of the new CBA

Those with their fingers on the purse strings are still acclimating to the new collective bargaining agreement. Many changes won't take effect until next summer, but the contours of the new deal are being felt. Shorter contracts that create more player movement are obvious consequences, but some subtler features have surfaced as well.

"You want to be one of two kinds of teams," one executive said. "Either be a very good team that manages the gap between the [salary] cap and the [luxury] tax, or be the last man standing with [salary cap] room so you can take advantage of teams that are spending and can't afford to go into the tax. Do that and people are going to come to you like the sky is falling."

Understanding dualities like these will allow a front office to find value in a marketplace that will be increasingly flooded because teams are moving away from long contracts.

"Look at Chris Kaman," one cap-savvy basketball operations staffer said. "That guy gets a long-term deal in the last CBA. Now, he's at one year, $8 million."

The "B+" draft class

Around New Year's Eve, we heard the first signals that the 2012 draft class might not live up to its substantial hype, and summer league has affirmed the sketpics.

"Discount this a little because Davis isn't here and [Charlotte] sat Kidd-Gilchrist, but I don't know if there's a true superstar here," a general manager said. "We're seeing a lot of strong, B-plus players, but nobody who can put a team on [his] back."

Portland Trail Blazers rookie point guard Damian Lillard has his fans among those who didn't get a chance to watch him play at Weber State.

"He's strong," an NBA assistant coach said. "I like him in the pick-and-roll and I like his defensive instincts. He and LaMarcus [Aldridge] will be tough to defend, especially if [Portland] can pick up some shooters."

Despite a subpar performance here in Las Vegas, Rivers has his believers, too. Scouts and coaches alike feel the shooting guard can make the transition to point guard by learning on the job. Several cited New Orleans head coach Monty Williams as the most decisive factor in their belief.

The global village of basketball

Not so long ago, if a player wasn't tapped by an NBA franchise, he looked across the Atlantic Ocean for a job. Financial crisis has hit European clubs hard, though, and now the middle of the labor scale is getting pinched, with fewer well-paying gigs available for American players.

It's not all bad news. Over the past couple of years, China has started to pay serious money to international players, as agents are quickly acquainting themselves with the particulars of the market. The day after summer league wraps up, the Korean Basketball League will hold tryouts for foreign players at a nearby high school in Las Vegas, before conducting its draft at the Palms Hotel on Thursday.

Then there's the D-League, which has become an increasingly attractive option for players. "The stigma is long gone," a general manager said. Players and their agents now see the D-League as the most plausible route to the NBA and that perception has been fortified over the past 10 days with Jeremy Lin's new deal from Houston and even the one-year guaranteed contract signed by Cartier Martin with Washington.

As basketball matures, its economic forecast looks a lot like the rest of the world -- more geographically diverse with emerging markets growing alongside the traditional powerhouses.

Kevin Arnovtz covers the NBA for ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter.

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