38.0 composite · lower is better
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Player profile · BOS / CHZ / LAL
Don Nelson
Don Nelson advanced stats and career rankings
35.2 average league finish
968 total value
Bottom line · Career overview
Don Nelson ranks #424 all time. Across his three best seasons, his average league finish was #30.7. His full-career value ranks #471, so this placement is driven more by dominance than longevity. Explore Don Nelson's advanced stats by season, era-adjusted impact, workload, and historical comparisons.
Career standing
How Don Nelson ranks all time
These are league placements, not raw scores. Each season is judged against that season's qualified player pool.
Best in the league
Elite finishes
Upper-tier finishes
Standard deviations across scoring seasons
Career Composite38.0
Equal average of Best 3, Prime 5, and Best 10 league finishes. The overlapping windows make this explicitly peak-weighted. Lower is better.
- Best 3 weight
- 63.3%
- Score
- 38.0
- Qualified seasons
- 13
- All-time rank
- #424
Strongest seasons
Every season
Don Nelson advanced stats by season
Era-centered box impact supports comparisons through time. Impact Rate and its rank compare players only within that season.
| Season | Team | Age | GP | MP | Era-centered box impact | Impact Rate | Rate rank | Season Value | Value percentile | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975–76Historical Defense Estimate | BOS | 35 | 75 | 943 | -0.77 | 50.0 | #95 | 25.8 | 41st | Established |
| 1974–75Historical Defense Estimate | BOS | 34 | 79 | 2,052 | +1.75 | 88.2 | #23 | 169.9 | 83rd | Strong |
| 1973–74Historical Defense Estimate | BOS | 33 | 82 | 1,748 | +0.21 | 63.1 | #66 | 88.4 | 62nd | Strong |
| 1972–73Historical Defense Estimate | BOS | 32 | 72 | 1,425 | +0.37 | 71.5 | #50 | 80.4 | 57th | Modeled |
| 1971–72Historical Defense Estimate | BOS | 31 | 82 | 2,086 | +0.65 | 72.6 | #46 | 133.8 | 68th | Modeled |
| 1970–71Historical Defense Estimate | BOS | 30 | 82 | 2,254 | -0.04 | 62.9 | #63 | 110.7 | 67th | Modeled |
| 1969–70Historical Defense Estimate | BOS | 29 | 82 | 2,224 | +0.49 | 73.8 | #38 | 135.5 | 69th | Modeled |
| 1968–69Historical Defense Estimate | BOS | 28 | 82 | 1,773 | +0.63 | 74.4 | #35 | 114.0 | 64th | Modeled |
| 1967–68Historical Defense Estimate | BOS | 27 | 82 | 1,498 | +0.75 | 72.5 | #34 | 103.9 | 58th | Modeled |
| 1966–67Historical Defense Estimate | BOS | 26 | 79 | 1,202 | -1.66 | 31.0 | #70 | 10.4 | 27th | Modeled |
| 1965–66Historical Defense Estimate | BOS | 25 | 75 | 1,765 | -1.24 | 39.8 | #57 | 34.2 | 43rd | Modeled |
| 1964–65Historical Defense Estimate | LAL | 24 | 39 | 238 | -4.13 | — | — | -12.1 | — | Modeled |
| 1963–64Historical Defense Estimate | LAL | 23 | 80 | 1,406 | -2.69 | 20.7 | #74 | -22.7 | 16th | Modeled |
| 1962–63Historical Defense Estimate | CHZ | 22 | 62 | 1,071 | -2.18 | 24.2 | #70 | -4.5 | 23rd | Modeled |
Career movement
Don Nelson's career impact by season
Peak +1.75 in 1974–75 · 14 seasons · 21,685 minutes
The same historical box-score model is used for every season, making the career shape comparable through time. This is separate from the current lineup-context ranking.
Era-centered box impactMinutesModeled estimate
Across-era box estimateWorkload
Career comparison
Compare the shape, not the calendar
Align by NBA experience to compare season one with season one, or by age to compare players at the same stage of life.
Don NelsonMatt Barnes
NBA season number · fixed impact axis −5 to +15
Similar career arcs
Players with careers similar to Don Nelson
The score compares era-centered box impact, peak, prime, workload, career length, position, and trajectory aligned by NBA experience. It describes career shape, not playing style or equal ability.
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91%career match
84% season match · 1974–75 ↔ 1995–96SG · All-Time Career #2086Anthony Peeler
91%career match
87% season match · 1974–75 ↔ 2000–01Impact Rate shows how strong a player was compared with everyone else that season. Season Value adds how much he played. The career ranking rewards a high peak, a long prime, and repeated seasons near the top. Older seasons use clearly labeled estimates where the NBA did not record today's full set of statistics. Read how every ranking works →