How impressive was Karl Malone's 1990 season

migya · Post #1 » by **migya** » Mon Dec 5, 2022 8:49 am

Karl Malone's 1990 season :

82gms, 31pts, 56.2fg%, 62.6ts%, 11.1rebs, 2.8ast, 1.5stl, 0.6blk, 118OR, 102DR, 27.2PER, 10.5ows, 5.4dws, 15.9ws, .245ws/48, 6.4bpm, 6.6vorp

The only player besides Jordan from that point on to average over 30pts, until Iverson in 2001.

70sFan · Post #2 » by **70sFan** » Mon Dec 5, 2022 10:17 am

It was strong all-nba season, but not true MVP level yet. Malone didn't create much for others yet and was more dependent on Stockton than later in his career. He also couldn't sustain that production in the playoffs, which remained true for the rest of his career.

A very, very good season but nothing extraoridinary from all-time perspective.

kcktiny · Post #3 » by **kcktiny** » Mon Dec 5, 2022 4:00 pm

Very impressive.

His 31 pts/g that season was the most scored by a PF in 29 years, and not bettered by another PF for 20+ years. It was his best overall shooting season. It was also just 1 of 3 seasons in league history that a PF attempted 900+ FTAs.

He also lead - by far - all PFs that year in defensive rebounds and FTM, and lead all PFs in steals.

He was named all-NBA 1st team, and the only PFs named over him for the all-D team were Buck Williams and Kevin McHale (Rodman then was more SF than PF). I believe he was as good of a defender as either of those two, but even if not he was as close as a defender to those two as any other PFs in the league at the time (Horace Grant, Derrick McKey, Charles Oakley were also really good defenders).

Definitely an MVP caliber type season (he was 4th in MVP voting that year).

migya · Post #4 » by **migya** » Tue Dec 6, 2022 1:46 am

kcktiny wrote:Very impressive.

His 31 pts/g that season was the most scored by a PF in 29 years, and not bettered by another PF for 20+ years. It was his best overall shooting season. It was also just 1 of 3 seasons in league history that a PF attempted 900+ FTAs.

He also lead - by far - all PFs that year in defensive rebounds and FTM, and lead all PFs in steals.

He was named all-NBA 1st team, and the only PFs named over him for the all-D team were Buck Williams and Kevin McHale (Rodman then was more SF than PF). I believe he was as good of a defender as either of those two, but even if not he was as close as a defender to those two as any other PFs in the league at the time (Horace Grant, Derrick McKey, Charles Oakley were also really good defenders).

Definitely an MVP caliber type season (he was 4th in MVP voting that year).

He carried that Utah team scoring, as he did every year. Even more impressive with the physicality of that era.

rk2023 · Post #5 » by **rk2023** » Tue Dec 6, 2022 5:57 am

migya wrote:Karl Malone's 1990 season :

82gms, 31pts, 56.2fg%, 62.6ts%, 11.1rebs, 2.8ast, 1.5stl, 0.6blk, 118OR, 102DR, 27.2PER, 10.5ows, 5.4dws, 15.9ws, .245ws/48, 6.4bpm, 6.6vorp

The only player besides Jordan from that point on to average over 30pts, until Iverson in 2001.

Playoffs: 25.2 Points, 43.8% FG, 50.5% TS, 10.2 rebounds, 2.2 ast, 2.2 stl, 1.0 blk, 2.4 TOV, 105OR, 19.7 PER, .107 ws/48, 3.5 BPM

Figured out by an elite defense, wasn't quite the player he was in his prime as a playmaker, same scoring struggles translation wise.