I didn't say Malone wasn't any good then, I simply said him and Stockton didn't suddenly get better at that time, the rest of the conference just got worse. And you're pretty much backing up my point with the bolded sentence.
They are top 20 players in league history. By "not getting better" you're saying they are totally awesome and in the same breath implying the Bulls got off easy only having to dispatch one of the most productive trios of players in NBA history in the Finals twice.
You would parse this stuff until you whittled MJ's accomplishments down to zilch.