30.6 composite · lower is better
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Player profile · DET / NYK
Nat Clifton
Nat Clifton advanced stats and career rankings
28.8 average league finish
556 total value
Bottom line · Career overview
Nat Clifton ranks #254 all time. Across his three best seasons, his average league finish was #25.3. His full-career value ranks #727, so this placement is driven more by dominance than longevity. Explore Nat Clifton's advanced stats by season, era-adjusted impact, workload, and historical comparisons.
Career standing
How Nat Clifton 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 Composite30.6
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
- 30.6
- Qualified seasons
- 8
- All-time rank
- #254
Strongest seasons
Every season
Nat Clifton 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1957–58Historical Defense Estimate | DET | 35 | 68 | 1,435 | -2.15 | 21.1 | #61 | -5.5 | 18th | Modeled |
| 1956–57Historical Defense Estimate | NYK | 34 | 71 | 2,231 | -1.00 | 43.0 | #46 | 51.3 | 53rd | Modeled |
| 1955–56Historical Defense Estimate | NYK | 33 | 64 | 1,537 | -0.53 | 54.7 | #35 | 50.1 | 48th | Modeled |
| 1954–55Historical Defense Estimate | NYK | 32 | 72 | 2,390 | +0.28 | 64.5 | #28 | 115.3 | 71st | Modeled |
| 1953–54Historical Defense Estimate | NYK | 31 | 72 | 2,179 | +0.07 | 61.0 | #33 | 82.1 | 63rd | Modeled |
| 1952–53Historical Defense Estimate | NYK | 30 | 70 | 2,496 | +0.66 | 74.5 | #25 | 128.7 | 81st | Modeled |
| 1951–52Historical Defense Estimate | NYK | 29 | 62 | 2,101 | +0.93 | 76.8 | #23 | 121.7 | 81st | Modeled |
| 1950–51legacy estimate | NYK | 28 | 65 | 1,864 | -1.68 | 27.9 | #76 | 11.8 | 35th | Modeled |
Career movement
Nat Clifton's career impact by season
Peak +0.93 in 1951–52 · 8 seasons · 16,233 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.
Nat CliftonP.J. Washington
NBA season number · fixed impact axis −5 to +15
Similar career arcs
Players with careers similar to Nat Clifton
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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92%career match
92% season match · 1951–52 ↔ 1997–98Impact 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 →