RealGM

Vote in the poll.

Malone has more than 10 seasons on a very similar level, so I couldn't put all of them in the poll. If you think his best season was one that is not available in the poll, just mention that in your post.

1997 was his best regular season for sure with 1998 being his 2nd best. However he was much better in 1998 than 1997 for the playoffs and finals.
Not to mention in 1998 had to go thru Hakeem/Barkley/Drexler in round 1, Duncan/Robinson in the Semifinals and Shaq/Kobe/Jones/Van Exel in the Conference Finals.

I like late 90s Malone more than early 90s - better scorer in halfcourt situations and more inteligent player. I choose 1998 becasue he was much better in postseason than in 1997 and he faced very strong competition.

I would go with early 90s Malone, one of the true freaks of nature in the history of basketball. Right there with Lebron, Rose and Shaq

Late 90s Karl Malone, a more intelligent basketball player, and a better scorer.

Then it's between 98 KM and 97 KM. I go with 98 KM, much better PO, facing much better comp.

Damn you got my hopes up. I was hoping the OP was back.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using RealGM mobile app

Laimbeer wrote:Damn you got my hopes up. I was hoping the OP was back.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using RealGM mobile app

Quotatious is surely missed.

I will choose 1998

Because in Regular Season he was really close to 97 but him having better translation in the playoffs against better compétition.

Also late Malone 96-99 > 90-93 because he a better decisions making on tight coverage and his scoring get more versatile with the additional of midrange while still providing almost the same Value as early K.malone on scoring. also he's more consistent on defense and put more effort than he use to be. All this make him scale his game to a playoff setting more cause he less schemable ( even if he still one of the biggest playoff dropper all time )

1990. Karl got more fame for his later seasons when the Jazz had more team success, but 26 yr old Mailman was at his physical peak and the stats certainly suggest that was his best year.

I wish we could’ve seen peak Malone in a dynamic and versatile offensive scheme instead of the Sloan universe just once in his career.

EmpireFalls wrote:I wish we could’ve seen peak Malone in a dynamic and versatile offensive scheme instead of the Sloan universe just once in his career.

But he did really well with such a large load to carry. Particularly in relation to scoring, he probably had a bigger scoring load than everyone in the 1990s, especially second half of the 90s.

Hmmm.

1990 was obviously his craziest RS scoring season. 1992 for the postseason.

Obviously, by the late 90s, he was a more polished player. Better passer, better jumper, all that. But I think that him shooting 56% from the floor while crunching 3 offensive boards per game in the middle of the half-decade over which he led the league in FTM and FTA per game were sort of the deal. He posted 29, 31 and 29 ppg from 89-91, and 90 was obviously the middle of that.

This, of course, raises the question of "what is peak?"

His J was there. His physical tools and production were better than any other period of his career. I have to go with that, even if he was more refined later on in the 90s.

EmpireFalls wrote:I wish we could’ve seen peak Malone in a dynamic and versatile offensive scheme instead of the Sloan universe just once in his career.

Alongside a dynamic perimeter scorer, don't forget to add.