Let me preface this by saying my favorite Kings players have been, in succession, Michael "the Animal" Smith, Doug Christie and Ron Artest. I love intense, defensive enforcers and no one can deny number 93 is easily at the top of the list.
That being said, the front office botched any chance to build a contending team with Artest (keep in mind, I didn't say "around Artest") during the off-season following the Spurs series.
Two fatal mistakes doomed the Artest experiment:
1: Letting go of Adelman - a coach Artest appeared to, at least on the surface, respect, and for whom Artest had been playing well and openly lobbied to keep. And worse yet, replacing him with an inexperienced, undisciplined (DUI), brown-noser in Muss.
2: Continuing to ignore the enormous hole at Power Forward. We knew SAR and K9 weren't going to cut it ... so the FO responded by drafting an undersized scoring PG and signing an athletic, free agent swingman.
Going in, there was the opportunity to mimic the "sum-is-better-than-the-parts" pre-brawl Pacers by adding a defensive, inside presence to balance out the roster (As I've mentioned, Tyson Chandler was available) ... instead we went into the race driving a Ferrari with a flat tire.
Now it's too late. We don't have the trade assets to make this team a contender with Artest and don't have the financial flexibility to lure meaningful free-agents.
The only option is to go through the draft and by the time those players develop (assuming we're lucky enough to get valuable prospects), Artest will either be gone or past his prime.*
While I like Artest, I don't believe he can be the cornerstone of a contender. He either needs to be in the Rodman role as the enforcer teamed with a Super Nova like David Robinson and M.J. whom he would respect enough to defer -- or a part of a balanced system like the pre-brawl Pacers.
Yes, Artest is clearly the best player on the Kings ... and unfortunately, therein lies the problem.
*(Enforcers like the 11-year-veteran Ron - i.e Xavier McDaniel, Maurice Lucas, Anthony Mason and Dennis Rodman -- generally seem to have a 12-year shelf life of productivity. Charles Oakley lasted much longer at 16 years)