Yeah, one of those games (like Game 5, like Game 6) where the Jazz lead for pretty much all of the first 3 quarters and then Chicago turns up the defensive pressure in the 4th, and ultimately nobody remembers anything besides Malone rimming 2 FT's and Jordan's buzzerbeater. Looking at the boxscore, the other shocker in that game was Pippen was battling a foot injury but he really bounced back with that huge game, thoroughly outplaying Russell.
Larry Miller and Scott Layden just saw their team go toe-to-toe with a 69-win Chicago team where they consistently outplayed Chicago but couldn't finish in the final 5 minutes. They knew Karl only had a few seasons left playing at a superstar level and they knew they were close to a championship so they wanted to take one final crack at it. All they did during the summer of '97 was resign Bryon Russell, Jeff Hornacek, Howard Eisley, Shandon Anderson and Antoine Carr (also gave Ostertag his big contract but that was an extension - he was signed for 97-98 regardless) to make one final championship push.
If healthy - Seikaly would've provided Utah with the scoring punch they had always been looking for at the pivot. The Jazz simply wanted him to report to SLC so they could examine the extent of his foot injury - but he didn't want to do that without Utah making gaurantees about his contract situation.
It’s not like Scott Layden saw the scouting report that said “Seikaly is a right-handed center who will likely not want to play in SLC w/out contract assurances” and went ahead with the trade anyway. FWIW the Jazz went 28-5 after the trade – so it’s not like the trade messed up their chemistry. Frank Layden sat down with both players afterward and if anything it brought the team closer together.
Utah had just given Chicago their toughest championship series ever. If they had a roster shakeup and failed to reach the finals – the whiners would be saying “The Bulls were a weaker team in ’98, we should’ve just kept the same team.” Heck, until the 4th quarter of Game 2 of the ’98 Finals - a large portion of the basketball world felt the Jazz were the favorites over Chicago.
The Bulls went through the same thing Utah did – only worse. Scottie Pippen missed twice as many games as Stockton did and not only did Chicago have a weaker bench than the Jazz, but Jordan had to play the most minutes he had in any season since 1990. Bulls management further depleted their bench by trading away Jason Caffey - their only serviceable big off the bench for nothing in return, and Pippen played Game 6 of the finals with a severely limiting back injury.
Yes, the Fuller trade (only for a 2nd-rnd pick but Fuller was still terrible) and Chilcutt signing sucked, they signed Gilliam after he was waived at midseason when he was the best FA available so that was the best option at the time. However, when you consider the fact that Kevin O’Connor was working for the 76ers during all those moves, I have a hard time blaming him for those transactions.
