Wow, it's cool to see people speculating about the wider NBA. That tempts me to widen the story to cove the rest of the league - but I'm not going to. I tried that with my 84 Draft TL and after 3-4 seasons its impossible to keep track of.
However, that doesn't mean I haven't thought about some things
Bmao is pretty close to the mark.
Back in 1998 OTL, there was a lot of speculation and rumours that the Lakers wanted Scottie Pippen.
The trade was Pippen (Sign and Trade) for Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell. This butterflies away the Rice trade obviously. Personally, I think its better for both teams. OTL, the Bulls essentially gave Pippen away for nothing, here they get an all star guard and a pretty good big man. And Pippen is a huge upgrade over Rice for LA.
What's to become of the lockout? Does that still happen in this timeline?
Also, while I think that Jordan and Jackson would retire if Pippen was traded away, Kukoc did stay with the team in OTL, and I also wonder if Kerr and even Rodman would stay if they got Jones and Campbell.