When the Sacramento Kings selected Nique Clifford at No. 24 overall at the 2025 NBA Draft, a statement was made. The Kings made a clear commitment to bolstering their perimeter with a young and promising player who could provide on and off-ball value.
Unfortunately, one of the biggest steals of the 2025 NBA Draft is already revealing the flaw in the design of Sacramento's roster.
Clifford is currently playing with the Kings at Summer League. He's taken advantage of the opportunity to reside in the spotlight, starting things off by posting 17 points, four rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block against the Orlando Magic.
Clifford followed that performance with 19 points, 12 rebounds, and five assists against the Chicago Bulls, and another 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting against the Phoenix Suns.
In each of those three showings, Clifford displayed the potential to provide immense two-way value. He showed flashes of being able to space the floor, compete on the defensive end, and continue to establish himself as one of the best rebounders and passers among the wings in his class.
Unfortunately, for as well as Clifford has played at Summer League, the Kings' roster structure may ultimately fail him when it comes time to design the 2025-26 rotation.
Kings' crowded rotation leaves minimal room for player development
Sacramento has loaded up on high-volume veterans along the perimeter, including DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Malik Monk, and Dennis Schröder. That alone could make minutes scarce for reserves hoping to find their way into the rotation.
With Devin Carter, Clifford, and Keon Ellis all likely to be competing for minutes, it's difficult to envision a scenario in which player development and patience are priorities.
Perhaps one or even two of Carter, Clifford, or Ellis will secure significant playing time and thus be positioned to make noteworthy strides while operating with the benefit of patience. The opportunity for all three to do so, however, seems to depend on the availability of the veterans.
That's an admittedly common occurrence for a team with multiple All-Stars, but Sacramento's imperfect fit makes it all the more difficult to stomach player development being less of a priority.
DeRozan and LaVine have written this story before, with the Chicago Bulls making one postseason appearance in the three years during which they were teammates. A case can certainly be made that Domantas Sabonis is a better complement than Nikola Vucevic was, much as Monk and Schröder are more productive backcourt partners than what Chicago put forth.
The unfortunate truth facing the Kings, however, is that their success is heavily dependent upon conventional wisdom proving overwhelmingly false.
Clifford represents an opportunity to develop a player who can not only step in and play away from the ball, but ease some of the playmaking burden and act as a bridge between relatively big names. Unfortunately, the structure of the Bulls' roster provides no clear path to such a dream coming true.
Sacramento has done an excellent job of scouting and drafting talent, but with the way it's designed its roster, opportunities for patient development are difficult to envision.