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We’re getting pie faced on Last Dance

rare144 said:
Here i am watching reliving this game @Handlogten's Heros

eisley was a really decent pg, didn't appreciate him enough
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His greatest sin was he wasn't Stockton. He turned into a solid player then left us... him and Shandon Anderson should have been slapped.
 
I was 14 and 15 when the Jazz lost those two finals, and maybe that's part of the reason why it still hurts all these years later.

And the most ridiculous thing 20+ years after is not just how close the Jazz were, but how any trade that even moved the needle slightly would've won a championship, but the Jazz just never made it. The Jazz actually never made a trade during those two seasons. This is actually ludicrous from a team so close to a title.

During the whole 97-98 season, the Jazz only made two moves: signing William Cunningham and Troy Hudson, then cutting them both long before playoffs started. The season before, the Jazz signed Stephen Howard and Ruben Nembhard. In August 1996, the Jazz traded Felton Spencer for two players who would be cut by the second week of season(and Andrei Kirilenko, but no one knew that at the time). In two years, the Jazz made no trades whatsoever and signed 4 players who would've struggled to start on a G-League team.

Ridiculously, the Jazz also made no trades in the 95-96 season. The last trade that netted the Jazz anyone who would actually play in the 1998 NBA Finals happened in September of 1994. Think about that. 4 years! Four years during which the Jazz won 60, 55, 64, and 62 games and were a dead-serious contender and the front office couldn't pull off one trade. Yes, I know about Harper and Seikaly and all that. But 4 years, and the best the Jazz could do was trade Spencer for a pick. I know the Jazz were by no means loaded with talent or other trade bait, but Chris Morris had a big expiring contract. The Jazz owned their own FRP from '96 to 2002. None of that could've been traded for anything?
 
LogGrad98 said:
I refuse to watch the Jordan puff piece. **** him and **** the Bulls and **** the NBA too, and **** to hell whoever decided to make that piece of **** masturbatory "documentary"
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Exactly how I felt.
l Abach l said:
Great post. Really makes you wonder why the jazz were so inconsistent in the playoffs, and why there was such a stark drop-off in performance. To be honest, I'm starting to wonder if Sloan deserves more of the blame. I've heard that his sets worked so well in the regular season because teams didn't have time to prepare, whereas when they had more time for preparation they knew how to handle the P&R. One thing I noticed in The Last Dance episodes was seeing players constantly leaving MJ to double down on Longley, Pippen, or Harper in the post... thus leaving MJ open for uncontested shots. That's coaching. And makes no sense.

I'm not sure though. At least with those final appearances, the lack of a championship can be attributed to the level of clutchness. Malone missing those FTs. Malone not boxing out Kukoc in game 5 in 97. Stockton averaging 9-10ppg in 98. The bench failing to show up in 98.

I think you're right though. The Jazz just aren't a lucky organization in the playoffs.
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They were inconsistent because Stockton and Malone were older, Hornacek had two shot to hell knees, and the supporting cast was ***. Go @ yourself. Sloan wasn’t to blame you utter idiot. He’s not the one that blew all those late game screw ups and blown calls and bad breaks. Jordan himself said the jazz were his toughest test of all his finals appearances.
JimLes said:
The Jazz actually never made a trade during those two seasons. This is actually ludicrous from a team so close to a title.
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And exactly what were the jazz going to get that would’ve put them over Jordan and the bulls. They weren’t going to trade Stockton or Malone, Horny was on his last legs and a bunch of scrub bench players. Most were old or young and not worth ****. So, for a team winning 55+ games why make bi Wholesale changes. Even had we made a trade, it wouldn’t have gotten a chip. It was a veteran team that was just too old with not enough defense or playmaking to overcome the goat
 
Thee jazz fan said:
Exactly how I felt.

They were inconsistent because Stockton and Malone were older, Hornacek had two shot to hell knees, and the supporting cast was ***. Go @ yourself. Sloan wasn’t to blame you utter idiot. He’s not the one that blew all those late game screw ups and blown calls and bad breaks. Jordan himself said the jazz were his toughest test of all his finals appearances.

And exactly what were the jazz going to get that would’ve put them over Jordan and the bulls. They weren’t going to trade Stockton or Malone, Horny was on his last legs and a bunch of scrub bench players. Most were old or young and not worth ****. So, for a team winning 55+ games why make bi Wholesale changes. Even had we made a trade, it wouldn’t have gotten a chip. It was a veteran team that was just too old with not enough defense or playmaking to overcome the goat
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Just watched ep 10. god dammit as much as I hate to admit it that wasn't a push off. A lot of weird memories coming back from my 14 year old self though.
 
It's really hard to say how Rony Seikaly would have impacted the '98 Jazz. Everyone kind of just assumed their weakness was always at center, and yet, to get to the NBA Finals, the Jazz had to go through Hakeem, Duncan/Robinson and Shaq - only to face the Thorn from Melbourne, Luc Longley lmao

It is true, though, that the Jazz lacked a consistent second scoring option. Stockton was very good at controlling the offense, but rarely ever bullish about taking control of the scoring. Only a handful of times, especially in those later years, did he manage to do it - game six against Houston in 1997 and game four against the Bulls later that playoff.

But Seikaly was a consistent scorer - far more consistent than Ostertag. He averaged 15 points while with the Magic that season, though his point total dropped when he was traded to the Nets. That season, Ostertag averaged 4.7 points. Had Seikaly kept his Magic average with the Jazz, he would have been the second leading scorer. As is, the second leading scorer for the Jazz was Horny with 14.2 points.

So, yes, I believe it a was a huge miss. Enough to cost 'em the title? I don't know but the fact I don't know is enough for me to wonder 'what if'...
 
Thee jazz fan said:
And exactly what were the jazz going to get that would’ve put them over Jordan and the bulls. They weren’t going to trade Stockton or Malone, Horny was on his last legs and a bunch of scrub bench players. Most were old or young and not worth ****. So, for a team winning 55+ games why make bi Wholesale changes. Even had we made a trade, it wouldn’t have gotten a chip. It was a veteran team that was just too old with not enough defense or playmaking to overcome the goat
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The Jazz started Keefe, Ostertag, and Foster at least one game in the '98 Finals. Adam Keefe started at center in the NBA Finals. Say that out loud for me, please. I have one memory of the guy, and it was him dunking in some game around '97 and because this was years before HD, I thought for a second it was Hornacek and I lost it.

You figure there was no one we could've signed or traded for who would've been an improvement on Ostertag, Foster, and Keefe put together? Broken down Dino Rađa who was released by the Celtics the summer of '97 but was still good enough to lead both Panathianikos and Olympiakos to Greek League titles as late as 2001. Otis Thorpe who was traded for a first round pick to Vancouver? Cliff Robinson? Bo Outlaw? Anyone but the trio above.
 
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