Ranking every season in Utah Jazz franchise history

1988-89 Utah Jazz Record: 51-31, Lost NBA Western Conference First Round vs Golden State Warriors 0-3

One might assume that any team featuring Karl Malone and John Stockton at the peak of their powers would field a dominant offensive team. Try telling that to the 1988-89 Utah Jazz.

Malone averaged 29.1 points and 10.7 rebounds per game, while John Stockton averaged 17.1 points and 13.6 assists per contest. Yet, in direct defiance of reason, the Utah Jazz finished the 1988-89 season with the 17th best Offensive Rating in the NBA at 106.6. To make matters worse, here’s a friendly reminder: that’s 17th out of 25, not 30.

Instead, this group was dominant on the defensive end. They had the best Defensive Rating in the league at 101.5. That much checks out, as any Jazz team with Mark Eaton manning the middle tended to have an elite Defensive Rating throughout his prime.

It’s hard to account for that problematic offense though. Thuri Bailey, one of the NBA’s forgotten talents, averaged 19.5 points per game as Malone’s second scoring fiddle.

It’s possible that even on the standards of the late 80s, the Eaton/Malone pairing was too offensively limited. It’s an interesting thought experiment: take Karl Malone and pluck him into 2021, and there are strong odds that he’d spend the bulk (pun intended) of his minutes at the 5. Any coach that preferred him at the 4 would inevitably be forced to pair him with a stretch 5.

The standards were different in 1988-89, but if the Jazz’s Offensive Rating from that season is any indication, they may not have been as different as we think.