Scott Perry shows patience, selects Nique Clifford, Maxime Raynaud in NBA Draft

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Patience. 

In his first official draft as the Sacramento Kings’ general manager, Scott Perry came into the night without a first round pick and with limited assets to acquire one. He waited, almost painfully long, but when Nique Clifford out of Colorado State dropped down the board, Perry made his move.

Clifford, who was slated to go around the middle of the first round, slid to No. 24 where the Oklahoma City Thunder were on the clock. Perry took a swing, sending the 2027 first round pick from the San Antonio Spurs acquired in the De’Aaron Fox trade, to the Thunder for Clifford. 

Perry confirmed that the pick sent to OKC is protected 1-16. If the selection doesn’t convey in 2027, it becomes two second round picks, the Kings’ own in 2027 and another 2027 pick acquired from the Charlotte Hornets that was another piece to the Fox trade.

As Perry attempts to build the Kings on the fly, he has set forth a type of player and culture that he is looking for. Clifford checks all of the boxes.

“Things that are important that we’re going to value here -- competitive, tough, team-oriented, accountable, disciplined, professional -- and so, with that, we selected a young man tonight by the name of Nique Clifford from Colorado State who we believe displays and lives a lot of those values that are important to us,” Perry said following the first round.

For a team that didn’t have a first round pick coming into draft day, the Kings not only landed a high quality prospect, but one that fell a few spots down the draft board where the price wasn’t prohibitive.

Who is Nique Clifford?

Measuring in at 6-foot-5.25, 202 pounds with a 6-foot-8 wingspan, Clifford is a versatile wing who projects as a multi-positional defender at the NBA level. At 23 years old, Clifford should be close to NBA ready and his skill set is intriguing. 

After spending three seasons in the Pac 12 with Colorado, Clifford transferred to Colorado State where he played two more years for the Rams. In his final NCAA season, Clifford posted 18.9 points, 9.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game, while shooting 49.6 percent from the field and 37.7 percent from three. He added 1.2 steals and .6 blocks in 35.4 minutes per game.

Of all of the numbers that stand out, Clifford’s 9.6 boards, including 8.1 defensive rebounds per game, jump off the boxscore. Clifford posted 15 double-doubles in 36 games as a senior, including 12 games where he broke double digits in defensive rebounds.

Clifford improved his scoring, rebounding and assist numbers in his final NCAA season and he solidified his 3-point shooting numbers as well. He also earned an All-Mountain Conference first team and All-Defense honors during his senior season. 

How does he fit with the Kings?

As of today, this might be complicated. There is hope that Clifford can play both the two and the three at the NBA level. He’ll need time to adjust, like any rookie, but the Kings are very deep at the shooting guard spot and finding minutes there, as the roster is currently constructed, will be tough. 

An easier path to minutes would be at the small forward, where the Kings are limited to just DeMar DeRozan at the position at this point. It’s early and more changes are expected, but the addition of Clifford should give Perry some motivation to clear out some roster overlap. 

Clifford’s ability to defend should earn him time on the floor. If he can continue to improve as a 3-point shooter and give the team a boost on the glass, there is a pathway for the rookie to earn rotational minutes early in the 2025-26 season. 

An interesting comparison

Player comps are part of the draft process every year, even if they are often way off base and don’t really amount to much. It’s a fun part of the draft build up and usually provides some amusement down the road when you go back and look at how far off most comps are. 

Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin O’Connor took a broad stroke, comparing Clifford to Khris Middleton, Josh Hart and Desmond Bane. Middleton is a knockdown shooter, Hart is a great rebounder and Bane is an elite scorer. It’s possible that Clifford is some sort of combination of all three players, but that’s a tall order. 

NBA.com threw out names like Kyle Kuzma, Paul George, Jalen Williams and Ron Holland, again, covering just about all bases imaginable. 

NBADraft.net threw out the name Cody Martin and then a very interesting extra name that Kings fans are extremely familiar with in Doug Christie. Former player turned new head coach in Sacramento, Christie will get a shot to mold Clifford into an NBA player. Whether that resembles Christie’s all-around defensive game or not will take time to prove out.

While Christie hasn’t chatted with the media to discuss the similarities between himself and his newest player, both Clifford and Perry did on Wednesday night.

“I’ve heard that comp before and he’s definitely a well respected player and I’m super excited to just go there and learn from him, get to pick his brain because he was such a great player,” Clifford said. “But I need to do more homework, honestly, and watch more film, because I have heard that before, but I need to do my research.”

Clifford grew up a Kobe Bryant fan, so it shouldn’t be hard to find plenty of clips that feature both Bryant and Christie from their playoff battles from the early 2000s. 

While Perry said that he sees the physical resemblance between Christie and Clifford, he doesn’t want to put that pressure on the rookie wing.

“The similarities, as far as defensive versatility, yeah, I see that similarity ,” Perry said. “But I want him to be his own player. When you get into comparisons, I never want to put that type of expectation or pressure on any type of player. I want him to be his natural self.”

“Now if his natural self ends up looking like Doug Christie, then great for us,” Perry added. “But I want him to be the best Nique Clifford he can be and I think this young man is going to give himself a chance to do that.”

Regardless of the player comps, the Kings are hoping they found a rotational player in Clifford. If he can match some of Christie’s defensive prowess early in his career, the rookie will earn minutes. If he can become the Swiss army knife type player that Christie was, he’ll not only play, but stick in the league for a long time.

Another draft day steal?

After snatching up Clifford with the No. 24 pick, Perry held onto his second round selection and chose another draft day faller in Stanford big man Maxime Raynaud with the No. 42 selection.

The 7-foot-1 Frenchman was slated to go in the mid-twenties, but like a handful of players in this year’s draft, dropped into the second day of the draft. At 22, Raynaud is another seasoned college player who could step in and help early in his career.

After shooting 34.7 percent on 5.5 3-point attempts per game in the ACC, Raynaud projects as a potential stretch five at the NBA level. He averaged 20.2 points, 10.6 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in 33.5 minutes per game.

Raynaud posted 25 double-doubles and scored 20 points or more in 21 out of 35 games. He was remarkably consistent as a scorer, failing to score in double figures just twice, finishing both of those games with eight points.

The Kings currently have the Lithuanian tandem of Domantas Sabonis and Jonas Valanciunas manning the center position, but big man Trey Lyles enters the summer as an unrestricted free agent. Adding a 7-footer with some perimeter shooting potential makes a lot of sense for the Kings as Perry attempts to recharge the roster.

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