But is Nelson too clever for his teams' own good?

Don Nelson's small-ball lineup in Golden State upset the Mavs last year but found its limit against the Jazz in the second round. Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

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Don Nelson always has been the NBA coaching equivalent of "MacGyver," innovating and improvising his way to success with a spool of thread, a straight pin, what's left in a tube of Chapstick and the magnifying glass he got as a prize in his last box of Crackerjack.

"MacGyver" wouldn't have been nearly as much fun if he'd always had handy a shoulder bag full of C-4 explosives and a Glock G17 9mm pistol. Same thing with Nellie, if he'd always had the proper and best horses. Especially in the middle.

An overdue choice for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame after 44 years and more than 3,500 games as an NBA player or head coach, Nelson has carried around a "genius" label for much of his career working the sidelines, sometimes with a "mad" adjective out front.

It was Nellie, remember, who pioneered the concept of the "point forward," first utilizing Paul Pressey's long wingspan, court savvy and passing ability to direct the offense in Milwaukee. To exploit the NBA's early illegal-defense rules, he often would have big men such as Paul Mokeski and Randy Breuer, way out on one wing, literally link arms to keep each other -- and any help defenders -- out of isolation plays.

He remains a devotee of "small ball," to the point that his three shortest players in any given game might, for long stretches, be instructed to man frontcourt positions. He's the guy who encouraged 7-foot-6 Manute Bol to launch three-pointers for Golden State, the same guy who posted up stocky point guard Tim Hardaway and probably wished he could have tried it with Spud Webb or Muggsy Bogues.

"One of his biggest strengths," Golden State general manager Chris Mullin said, "besides his incredible feel for the game and his in-game strategies and all of that, is doing what you said: 'Whatever I have, I'm going to make it work.'"

Nelson always has been fascinated with "bigs," but rarely the traditional or All-Star variety. Instead, he has gone for the likes of Bol, Chris Anstey, Shawn Bradley, Wang Zhizhi or Dirk Nowitzki, arguably the league's ultimate perimeter 7-footer. Give him a low-post, back-to-the-basket, old-fashioned pivot man, though, and you'd almost expect Nellie to get bored.

The trend continues in Golden State, where the Warriors rely nearly as much in the middle on 6-foot-9 Al Harrington as they do on starting center Andris Biedrins, and where Nelson seems already to be down on 7-footer Patrick O'Bryant, the No. 9 pick overall in 2006.

"I've only had one good center, and that was Bob Lanier," Nelson said after Golden State's shootaround earlier this week in Minneapolis. "He was on one leg at the time. I had [Patrick] Ewing, but Ewing was about all done, too. History would put Ewing in there, although I didn't consider him a great player when I had him."

Lanier, at the end of his own Hall of Fame career, played four-plus years for Nelson in Milwaukee on barking knees. He was a warhorse and a leader, but he never averaged more than 14.3 points or 6.3 rebounds per game over a full season. Ewing still was putting up solid numbers (22.5 ppg, 10.6 rpg) in his partial 1995-96 season with Nelson in New York before the coach got fired, but he was less traditional than some people recall. "Patrick had become probably their best jump-shooter by then," Mullin said.

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