Best Non-MVP Regular Seasons in NBA History

rk2023 · Post #1 » by **rk2023** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 1:49 am

Interesting topic i've talked about with a few friends (some active on the RealGM platform), but how would some of the best non-
MVP seasons stack up solely looking at regular season play?

Not sure across the board, but some of the best seem to be (for me):

90 MJ, 14 LBJ, 64 Wilt, 03 Garnett, 73 Kareem, 95 D-Rob, 93 Hakeem

Lots of options here including ranking within the top picks, so wondering how those (and many other ATG efforts) could be ranked.

PistolPeteJR · Post #2 » by **PistolPeteJR** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 3:19 am

09 Wade

trelos6 · Post #3 » by **trelos6** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 4:32 am

93-94 D Rob

72-73 Kareem

07-08 Chris Paul

05-06 Kobe

08-09 Wade

92-93 Hakeem

falcolombardi · Post #4 » by **falcolombardi** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 4:41 am

2019 harden

LukaTheGOAT · Post #5 » by **LukaTheGOAT** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 4:44 am

03 McGrady
98 Shaq
03 KG
09 CP3 (even better than his 08 season)

oldschooled · Post #6 » by **oldschooled** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 7:56 am

90 MJ
94 DRob
98 Shaq
06 Kobe
22 Giannis (ridiculous season from Giannis overshadowed by a ridiculous season from Jokic)

Jaivl · Post #7 » by **Jaivl** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 9:01 am

90 MJ is a GOAT caliber season, probably THE GOAT season, in fact.

03 Garnett, 04 Duncan, **choose your LeBron**, 93 Hakeem and Jordan, 64 Wilt and 73 Kareem are top-10 peak kind of regular seasons.

After those we have a bunch of top-20 peak kind of seasons like **choose your Drob**, 22 Giannis, 09 Paul, Kobe and Wade, 19 Harden, 14 Durant... etc etc

70sFan · Post #8 » by **70sFan** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 10:25 am

Am I cheating when I mention the best seasons of Mikan?

coastalmarker99 · Post #9 » by **coastalmarker99** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 10:45 am

1962 Wilt as it easily has a case for being the biggest award robbery in the history of sports along with Kareem in 1973

How else can you explain Wilt being voted first-team all NBA over Russell yet not being voted the MVP?

In these Russell-Wilt discussions, it is fascinating that the players tended to be more favourable to Russell, while the sportswriters, who voted for the All-NBA teams, were definitely pro-Wilt.

In their 10 seasons in the league together, Russell and Wilt each won four MVPs, with Russell coming in 2nd once, 3rd twice, 4th twice, and not in the voting in 67-68.

Meanwhile, Wilt came in 2nd twice, 4th once, 5th once, 7th once, and not at all in the 68-69 balloting.

In the All-NBA voting in their ten years in the league together, Chamberlain waxed Russell by a 7-2 margin, with the other always coming in second, except in the 68-69 season.

As you can see, the voting discrepancies were considerable between the players and the writers.

Also for further reference,

1961-62:

Russell vs Wilt 10 regular season H2H's:

Russell: 18.5 ppg, 24.6 rpg, .38.3 FG%, and 4.4 apg.

Wilt: 39.7 ppg, 28.8 rpg, .46.8 FG%, and 2.1 apg.

Wilt outscored Russell in all 10 H2H's.

Wilt outrebounded Russell in 7 of the 10 H2H's.

Wilt outshot Russell from the field in 8 of the 10 H2H's.

It's important to note that the referees allowed zone defence for Wilt's opponents even though it was against the books.

Russell most of the time had another Celtic player to help him in guarding Wilt.

When a player is dropping these kind of stat-lines on nearly a 50-win team he deserves the Mvp.

Wilt Chamberlain drops 34 points, 33 rebounds, and 20+ blocks against the Packers.

(Mar 15, 1962)

Watch on YouTube

;t=62s

coastalmarker99 · Post #10 » by **coastalmarker99** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 10:48 am

Here is Wilt Chamberlain's incredible 1963-1964 Season

Regular Season
-36.9 PPG (League leader)
-22.3 RPG
-5.0 APG
-52.4% FG
-31.6 PER
-.325 WS/48 (Career-high and league leader)
-14.4 OWS
-10.6 DWS (Career high) *For reference, Olajuwon's career high was 8.7

We do know through research that the sportswriters had voted Wilt as the MVP over Oscar

HeartBreakKid · Post #11 » by **HeartBreakKid** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 10:54 am

Probably a prime season from Jordan, James, Chamberlain, perhaps Russell.

coastalmarker99 · Post #12 » by **coastalmarker99** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 11:01 am

It is still a total travesty that Cowens won the MVP over Kareem in 1973.

You know it is really bad when even a Celtic homer in Bill Simmons flat-out admits that Kareem got screwed.

Cowens averaged 20.5/16.2/4.1 on 45.2 FG% (-0.4 rFG%) and 48.1 TS% (-1.7 rTS%).

On the other hand, Kareem averaged 30.2/16.1/5.0 on 55.4 FG% (+9.8 rFG%) and 58.0 TS% (+8.2 rTS%).

Plus Abdul-Jabbar led the league in PER (28.5), WS (21.9), and WS/48 (.322) on a 60-plus-win team

Despite the Celtics’ superior record.

I wholeheartedly believe that Kareem was robbed of the 1973 MVP.

As not only was he vastly superior statistically to Cowens, but Kareem also had a much worse supporting cast and was still able to lead his team to 60 regular season wins.

In fact, John Havlicek, Cowens’ teammate, was arguably better than Cowens himself that season.

Amare_1_Knicks · Post #13 » by **Amare_1_Knicks** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 1:26 pm

Harden in 19 deserves a mention. He had a solid team around him obviously, but Houston also dealt with myriad injuries that year. Individually, he went for 36/7/8/2 on +5.6%rTS — for a 53 win team.

Ron Swanson · Post #14 » by **Ron Swanson** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 2:36 pm

It's 1990 MJ, followed by either '64 Wilt or '73 Kareem. I don't think any other season besides those 3 has any sort of case.

G35 · Post #15 » by **G35** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 3:42 pm

https://www.espn.com/page2/s/list/MVPcontroversy.html

Magic Johnson over Charles Barkley, 1990
In the closest NBA vote since the media took over the voting in 1981, Johnson edged Barkley by 22 points, even though Barkley received more first-place votes (38 to 27). Barkley averaged 25.2 points and 11.5 rebounds and shot 60 percent from the field. Johnson averaged 22.3 points, 11.5 assists and 6.6 rebounds (while shooting 48 percent). Barkley's Sixers won 53 games while the Lakers won 63. Oh yeah -- Michael Jordan averaged 33.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and 6.3 assists and finished third in the voting.

parsnips33 · Post #16 » by **parsnips33** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 3:54 pm

'21 Steph

Post #17 » by **penbeast0** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 4:00 pm

coastalmarker99 wrote:1962 Wilt as it easily has a case for being the biggest award robbery in the history of sports along with Kareem in 1973

How else can you explain Wilt being voted first-team all NBA over Russell yet not being voted the MVP?

...

One explanation is Russell deserved both.

Another is that criteria for All-NBA could be best individual player where criteria for MVP is most valuable to his team's success.

RCM88x · Post #18 » by **RCM88x** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 7:24 pm

'94 DRob remains one of the more statistically extreme seasons in NBA history
'03 McGrady is another, especially for a player that never won the Award

Point-Forward · Post #19 » by **Point-Forward** » Wed Sep 14, 2022 8:34 pm

'90 Barkley, '88 Bird, '03 McGrady and '09 Wade are the first players that immediately came into my mind.

LukaTheGOAT · Post #20 » by **LukaTheGOAT** » Thu Sep 15, 2022 12:29 am

Jaivl wrote:90 MJ is a GOAT caliber season, probably THE GOAT season, in fact.

03 Garnett, 04 Duncan, **choose your LeBron**, 93 Hakeem and Jordan, 64 Wilt and 73 Kareem are top-10 peak kind of regular seasons.

After those we have a bunch of top-20 peak kind of seasons like **choose your Drob**, 22 Giannis, 09 Paul, Kobe and Wade, 19 Harden, 14 Durant... etc etc

Just curious why you prefer 90 MJ to 91 MJ, or it's RS compared to 88 or 89 (better defensive years). I know 89-91 are arguably the same, I'm just curious if you noticed anything in particular with that year that stands out.