Nique Clifford Scouting Report
Elite athleticism, but it hasn't translated to a clear role and skillset yet. Regardless, the fifth-year senior is ranked highly on NBA radars, especially as a defender. Here's why:
Introduction
After spending his first three years with inner-state rival Colorado, he made the step to Colorado State by committing to Coach Medved, with whom he immediately reached the NCAA Tournament as a fourth-year senior. Clifford’s versatility on both ends of the ball led him to play various roles. He can serve as a team’s leading ball handler to where he can scale his role down by playing away from the ball in a role with fewer ball touches.
Clifford’s versatility, combined with his athleticism, is intriguing. He’s not easy to put in a box in terms of his role in the NBA. Regardless, the majority of it depends on improving his shot off the catch while banking more on his explosiveness when he’s looking to score. Regardless, there’s a role for him at the next level. That’s the emphasis of this scouting report.
Physical Profile
While measured at 6-foot-5 in socks, Clifford has a strong build with broad shoulders. He continued to fill his frame in the last few years, helping him add his game's multipositional character. At 199 pounds, he can still add more muscle to his frame in the next few years.
Clifford is an elite athlete. He’s explosive and has a good burst. On top of that, he stands out with his verticality. On the court that leads to him seamlessly stopping guards and wings on the perimeter while also playing as a helpside rim protector. He has quick hands and thrives on impacting the game with his rebounding. His experience combined with his physical tools are the intrigues for NBA decision-makers to keep an eye on.
Offense
Screen-offs
One of Clifford’s must-have skill sets on an NBA floor is his ability to run off screens. He’s not a consistent three-point shooter. That takes away the value of his rim pressure and explosiveness. To counter teams letting him free on the perimeter, Clifford will get set up with some plays where he can decide to attack the rim, shoot, or make the extra pass. His dominant role at Colorado State makes it challenging to find a good sample size. Regardless, there are many flashes of him rushing his decision-making when he’s coming off screens.
In the first play, he’s driving right into the help defender while making the right read to feed the weak-side cutter waiting near the three-point line. He should have made the pass before his two dribbles or picked up his dribble to fully make the help-defense commit to feed the cutter. Rushing his decisions is an area to work on for Clifford this season. In the second possession, Clifford does well to find himself an open look near the elbow after the baseline out-of-bounds play. However, he didn’t have his feet set properly, and with the defender closing out that hard, it was easier for him to attack the closeout.
To clarify, Clifford didn’t have his feet set properly and caught the ball on his left. When he’s not having the ball at 180 degrees, the fluidity of his shot isn’t there, and that’s the main reason it hit the side of the basket. We see a similar outing in the third play below. Clifford does well to use the screen to load up for the above-the-break three. However, he did not set his feet straight, as his angle to the basket was too wide. That’s one of his main areas of development. When he’s coming off screens, he’s not setting his feet quickly, and he’s not positioning himself well to bank on the three-point opportunities he’s getting. The fourth play shows a flash of how it looks when these areas are much better. For NBA decision-makers, that’s an area to focus on in his developmental plan.
Catch-and-shoot
We continue to focus on Clifford’s shooting. Nowadays, that’s one of the primary focuses in draft evaluation. Often, it’s not right. But in Clifford’s case, it’s easier for defenders to sag off him to mitigate his athletic advantages and explosiveness. Clifford has worked on becoming a steady and consistent shooter for many years now, and there are positives to mention, while there are also areas of development. As mentioned above, his positioning while not setting his feet properly leads to the process not starting the right way. However, that’s slowly changing throughout this season.
In the first play below, he’s using the pin very well to take him time to set his feet while correcting his stance. His release is decently high, but more importantly, he shows a fluid release while he’s elevating for his jumper. That’s the base. One of the things for Clifford to experiment with is to not lower the ball to the level of his waist. This costs him valuable seconds, and on an NBA floor with more athleticism and quickness around him, it’s imminent he’ll have defenders close out on him much faster. The release on the second possession was decent, but it lacked the much-needed quickness.
In the third and fourth plays below, Clifford shows flashes of setting his feet quicker while coming off motion. Those are the types of three-pointers he’ll find in the NBA. His athleticism and explosiveness hold enough gravity for defenders to respect his closeout attacks, especially if he’s improving the efficiency and higher-quality releases on his shots off the catch. The last play below is another example of Clifford taking too much time to set his feet and elevate for his jumper.
Catch-and-drive
With his explosiveness and good first step, Clifford can be a productive scorer out of closeouts once he enters the NBA. However, he has a bad habit of constantly bailing defenders out by settling for midrange jumpers. That’s taking away the value of his athleticism while not benefitting a team’s offensive rating with him on the floor. It’s a combination of tunnel vision as he’s looking to get buckets to where he’s simply setting for shots when he’s not getting the paint touches he’s looking for.
That’s one of the results of defenders not respecting his three-point shooting off the catch enough. They can simply drop their coverage and clog the painted area to mitigate Clifford's burst and explosiveness. The first play below is an example of where Clifford had the driving lane on the weak side, but with help positioning himself toward him, he settled for the midrange jumper instead of utilizing his teammate in the corner. The second play is another example of his struggles. Despite him finding the driving lane on the weak side, his footwork made it easy for the defense to adjust, knowing Clifford would drive on his left. That play should have had another outcome if he had used jab steps or fakes to open up a gap on the strong side to collapse the interior defense and use his option inside or in the corner.
In the third play below, Clifford shows his aggressiveness by using the reverse pivot foot to elevate his burst and explode to the rim to try and dunk it home. It earned him a trip to the charity stripe, where he’s seen in bunches this year at 3.3 attempts per game, converting those at a 71.4% clip. These are the flashes Clifford has to show more throughout the season. However, most of the time, he’s facing the challenge of focusing too much on getting buckets rather than making the extra pass, as the fourth play below shows.
Passing and playmaking
Clifford is averaging over three assists per game in back-to-back seasons while averaging fewer turnovers. That’s a decent indicator to show what his passing looks like. However, the context behind it is that he’s not looking to involve his teammates as much as he could. Therefore, an area of development for Clifford is to focus on looking for more playmaking reads while benefitting from the gravity his athleticism and explosiveness hold. Thus, his 268 career assists to 224 turnovers are not the returns NBA scouts should be looking for.
In the first play below, Clifford does well to get two feet inside the paint after attacking the closeout, followed by a good jump stop. He sees his corner shooter and executes his read impressively. In the second possession, Clifford sees the roll man pop to the rim whereafter he does well to pick up his dribble above the break and draw two defenders in before hitting the roller through the middle. The pass lacked some accuracy as he was under pressure. In the third play below, Clifford does well by surveying the floor in transition, where he’s drawing attention from all defenders running back to take their place before delivering the skip pass.
Clifford is best to serve as a ball-mover with some playmaking possibilities later in his career. Despite showing some flashes as a passer, he’s not consistently looking to serve as a playmaker. On an NBA floor, Clifford has to show that he can initiate his playmaking skillset more while consistently executing his passing reads. He has had five games with more than five assists this season, giving a good glimpse of what to expect throughout the remainder of the season.
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Defense
Pick-and-roll
Despite being a non-consistent go-to on offense, Clifford’s athleticism helps him to thrive as a plus-defender at the mid-major level. His plus size combined with his burst, decent defensive footwork, and mobility that helps him to defend in the pick-and-roll. On an NBA floor, he’ll be asked to do the same. What immediately stood out is that he’s using his strong frame to absorb contact. In the first play below, he navigates through the screen well before keeping his balance after the scorer bumps into him before the finish. Despite the shot going in, that’s a good play on Clifford’s end.
In the second possession below, the roll man snakes between two defenders, whereafter Clifford is a tad too late to recognize his switch. He contested his shooter from 90 degrees, where he had to relocate to put a hand in his face with his body further blocking the view and taking away a potential closeout attack. His top-notch screen navigation is yet again on display in the third play below. While his teammate fights through the double stagger, Clifford focuses on his assignment before throwing himself between the screener and the ball handler at the elbow.
However, at times, Clifford is caught making the wrong decisions. In the fourth play, the ball handler rejects the screen after seeing Clifford moving toward the ball screener after the jab step. The last play below shows how reactionary Clifford can be as he gets stuck on the screen. However, he shows great recovery by keeping his tag on the ball handler alive before blocking the floater from behind.
Catch-and-drive
When closing out to the perimeter, Clifford shows decent footwork but needs to work on his last step to ensure he’s taking away the driving lane from his opponent while forcing him to either make the extra pass or take the heavily contested shot. He’s often not closing out at 180 degrees. In the first play below, he makes up for it with his good lateral quickness and physicality. Clifford is tough as a defender and he’s good at not allowing his opponents to get paint touches. While we usually see prospects being reactionary, Clifford’s experience helps him playing as a tone-setter.
In the second play, Clifford gets shaken out of balance by the hesitation move, leading to him losing his man and forcing to foul to make his opponent earn the points from the line. With his burst and lateral quickness it’s not often that he’s beat off the dribble. But at 2.6 personal fouls per 34 minutes per game, he’s playing within control and can afford to go for the reaching foul to stop an advantage created inside his arc. Another positive is Clifford’s good feel for rotations. His opponent switches to his interior defender, whereafter Clifford immediately rotates and takes the assignment at the elbow.
In the fourth possession below, the foul call was a tad too rich. With the possession drying out, Clifford knew he would get the stop in isolation. He didn’t bite on the fake and did well to play physically and tough before the defender bumped into him before the finish. It’s doubtful these calls will be the same on an NBA floor. Regardless of the foul, it should be evaluated as a good possession on his part. One area of development for Clifford is to not gamble on steals, as in the last play below. Despite averaging over a steal per game in back-to-back seasons, Clifford should focus on stopping his assignment rather than gambling to let his defensive playmaking work whilst giving up a collapsed defense in the last play below.
Catch-and-shoot
Clifford’s toughness is put on display when he’s closing out on spot-up shooters. He’s using his lateral quickness, verticality, and explosiveness well to turn a decently contested shot into a hard-contested one. In the first play below, his stance at 180 degrees of his opponent added weight to his hard shot contest. Despite the make in the second play, Clifford’s yet again showing the same high-level effort and hard shot contest on the elbow three. His consistent motor helps him to take the most out of each defensive possession. For NBA scouts, that’s the type of closeout you look for in today’s wing defender.
In the third possession below, Clifford tries to take away the driving lane, but the other side of the coin is that he gave up just enough room to where he’s allowing just enough room for his opponent to pull up from three. Regardless, that’s an acceptable shot as the main focus is to not give away the weakside baseline while he’s allowing a contested tough stand-still three. The same applies to the fourth play below, where Clifford contests the three after following up from his help defense to dribble penetration. Despite the make in the last play below, the level of effort, consistency of his motor, and his top-tier vertical leaping make Clifford a potential plus closeout defender to NBA standards.
Cuts
To elaborate on his help defense and overall defense against cutters, Clifford’s added value is that he can serve as a help-side defender due to his verticality and toughness. His 0.7 blocks per game don’t tell the whole story. He’s contesting high-quality looks inside the arc with his timely help defense in the first play below. His smooth hip flexibility helped him to quickly turn and take on the physical against his opponent. The same hip flexibility is put on display in the second possession, where Clifford was caught ball-watching but did well to spin and contest the wide-open layup at the rim. The ball-watching will likely stay to a degree, as no NBA player is perfect. The vital part of his evaluation is that his athleticism and body allow him to defend in a plus-valued way, and that’s the intangible NBA scouts look for.
In the third play below, Clifford does well to correct him, allowing the backdoor cut to where he uses his length well to eventually block the finish attempt underneath the basket. However, his consistent ball-watching could cause him to hurt a team’s defensive rating, as we see another example in the fourth play below. His active hands led to a deflection, but on an NBA floor, that bounce pass reaches the backdoor cutter without any issues. The intangibles are promising, but Clifford has had five seasons of college basketball to correct some of his habits and doesn’t look to use his time optimally.
NBA Draft Projection
Based on the strengths and areas of development mentioned in this scouting report, I project Nique Clifford to be a lock in the second round of the 2025 NBA Draft. He comes to the NBA with five seasons of experience in which he hasn’t developed a consistent three-pointer while struggling to functionally use his top-tier athleticism related to his fewer-ball-touches expected role. Regardless, Clifford will continue to develop in the G League after signing a two-way contract, as his role as a wing-defending hyper athlete with improving passing and playmaking fits what every team looks for.