Some might see the recent acquisition of Nique Clifford as a sign that the OKC Thunder want to address their wing position as a direct response to the Jalen Williams injury. However, the club has been trying to land someone of his ilk long before their early-season health woes.
For those unfamiliar with his game, Clifford is a long, lengthy, and innately athletic prospect who is widely regarded as a high-upside 3&D talent.
Ironically, this is virtually the exact same type of descriptor used for someone like Spencer Jones, a player whom the Thunder pursued way back in free agency, when they shelled out a two-year, $12 million offer sheet to him before the Denver Nuggets ultimately matched it.
Just a few months later, Sam Presti and company set their sights on another player of this kind of caliber in Ochai Agbaji, whom Oklahoma City signed to a standard deal just last week before waiving him after the unfortunate Chet Holmgren injury news.
Most recently, OKC took a swing on Dalen Terry, though they ultimately waived him just two games into his Thunder career to create the roster space needed to bring Clifford aboard.
Hopefully, this move finally addresses the kind of itch the Thunder have been trying to scratch since July.
Thunder seamlessly added Nique Clifford thanks to Aaron Wiggins
Compared to the other players that the Thunder tried to add in their pursuit of more 3&D wing help, Clifford boasts higher upside given he's only in year two, is largely younger, and has more recently shown promise as a consistent rotation player what with his final 28 games played last year, where he averaged 13.5 points, 5.1 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 1.4 steals on 35.8 percent shooting from deep.
The cherry on top of everything is the fact that he may have turned out to be the simplest of the bunch to snatch up.
Yes, Clifford's arrival required two second-round picks being shelled out to the Kings in exchange, but his $3.26 million salary was seamlessly absorbed into the $9.02 million Traded Player Exception created in the deal that sent Aaron Wiggins to the Atlanta Hawks this summer and, in turn, won't trigger the second-apron hard cap.
So not only did the Thunder wind up snatching up a promising young player in Clifford who's only in the second year of his four-year rookie-scale contract, but they managed to do so without having it go against their cap.
That, of course, is all thanks to the dearly departed Wiggins.
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