Even if the Kings miss the playoffs this season they're now officially the 2nd best team in the SW division.
The Kings are a perfect fit for Artest ~ under the guidance of gold medal champion Shareef Abdur-Rahim the sky is the limit for this dynamic duo. If Sacramento makes the 8th seed - the western conference better watch out...
this is how i see it... artest gets a second (or Nth ) chance, proves himself to be under control/super star defender/all star (at best), then, gets traded to a potential championship team. Maloofs, on the other hand, if they can maintain Artest sedated, can trade him for as many picks as possible. big risk, big rewards if all works out. kings get young through draft, etc... as for the Pacers, coulda gotten A LOT more for Artest.
I think if the Pacers could have gotten a better player than Peja they would have jumped at the offer. Artest's behavior brought his value down. I don't think they would traded him in the first place if he hadn't caused problems this year.
I strongly believe that one major major issue that led the Pacers to want to trade Ron this year was his reluctance to comply with certain aspects of mental health care that the Pacers and the NBA insisted were important. Ron can only be rehabilitated from his issues if he actually shows up to see the right people. Nobody has talked about this or will talk about it due to privacy issues. The Pacers, I believe, warned him that he comply "or else" and that's when he decided that he wanted the "or else". This is speculation on my part, but it is informed speculation. Doesn't it make sense? Did he give a real reason for wanting to be traded?
