I confess....I was one of those pushing hard here to trade RA.....In retrospect, I have mixed emotions......
On one hand, Ray carried our butts in the playoffs until that dirty piece of garbage, Artest, took him out of the Championship series....but for that one cheap act (God I hope Artest gets his..we were lucky that Artest caught Ray in the thigh, because if that was his knee, who knows?) we easily win that series, maybe in 5.
On the other hand, if RA was traded, Butler and Jamison both would have performed far better on the Cs for a whole lot of reasons (they couldn't have performed worse). Also, Ray WOULD have been bought out. (See Z Ilgouskas). While we most likely would not have RA this year, 18 last year would have been far more likely. Also, next years lockout would have made Jamison's contract far more palatable and we could've picked up a marksman somewhere (FA, draft, trade) if we thought we needed one to replace Ray's 3 prowess.....
This was a tough call, but in retrospect, I have to admit that I'm glad we kept Ray....I think