Could you have gotten more than a rookie prospect, a future draft pick, and a backup point guard with an expiring contract for Peja? I doubt it, considering that he was banged up at the time. I certainly would not have wanted to shell out $64 million over five years for him. Artest did get us into the playoffs when Peja almost certainly would not have. So I would make that deal again. However, I probably would have rather had Maggette when it was all said and done.

Everybody knew that he was going to walk at the end of the season. I would also guess that he down-played his back problems for a long time. I’d like to think it was so that he could help the Kings as much as possible while he was here and help them get value for him in a trade, but it probably had more to do with wanting a big pay day in his next contract.

But Artest was never going to be the long-term solution we needed, partly because of who he is as a person, but mostly because of who he is as a player.

We stuck a defense-first guy into an offense-first team. He was never going to be able to carry the team defensively, and after the first half-season he was here, he started to switch his mind-set to offense.

But he’s not that special an offensive talent. One of the hallmarks of a franchise player is that he makes the players around him better. Artest could never be that guy.

He’s a very good role player, an enforcer, and a guy who can be a great third option on the offense. He’ll do well in Houston.

In fact, if we were just getting him now, when we have other pieces in place so that he could be that third option, he might be what we needed at small forward.

But his attitude with the Kings is that he’s “the man”, where his attitude with Houston is that it’s Yao’s team.

So consider this in your what-if scenarios: What if we had traded Peja for prospects or picks, then managed to pick up Artest now, after he had worn out his welcome with some other team? What if we had “first half-season Ron” going into next season, making a fresh start, painting his shoes black because he only brought his home shoes with him, shaving weird stuff into his head, and having an expiring contract?

I think that’s the better question.

Ron (and the team) played well that first half season, but I believed even then that it was a mirage. I think the trade and short burst of success merely put off the necessary rebuild by two full years. If the rebuild had started then instead of with the Bibby trade this February, the Kings would be that much closer to being a good team now. They might have won 20-25 games instead of 33 and 38 the last two years, but I maintain that they would be better off now (higher draft picks, less MLE contracts) for having lost a few more games then.