With over one month away from the 2025 NBA Draft, the draft combine was this week, with three Mountain West invitees (out of 75 players). If you want to read more about that, click here.
There are still two weeks until players have to decide whether or not to go back to school. The only one of the three up for debate is San Diego State’s Miles Byrd, who had an impressive showing in his first of two scrimmages on Wednesday, scoring 11 points with four assists on 3-of-6 from 3-point range.
However, most of the scrimmages are for participants trying to improve their stock if they enter the week as projected second-rounders. One player who didn’t play was Colorado State wing Nique Clifford, projected to be the first Mountain West player drafted since former Ram and Mountain West Player of the Year David Roddy was drafted No. 23 overall to the Memphis Grizzlies in 2022.
Not only could he be the first Mountain West player drafted since Roddy, he could be the highest drafted MW player since UNLV’s Anthony Bennett went No. 1 overall in 2013.
Here’s a look at who was drafted since:
2022: David Roddy, Colorado State (22 overall)
2021: Neemias Queta, Utah State (39)
2020: Malachi Flynn, San Diego State (29)
2020: Jalen Harris, Nevada (59)
2020: Sam Merrill, Utah State (60)
2019: Cody Martin, Nevada (36)
2019: Justin James, Wyoming (40)
2019: Jalen McDaniels, SDSU (52)
2018: Chandler Hutchison, Boise State (22)
2016: Patrick McCaw, UNLV (38)
2016: Stephen Zimmerman, UNLV (41)
2015: Rashad Vaughn, UNLV (17)
2015: Larry Nance Jr., Wyoming (27)
2014: Cameron Bairstow, New Mexico (49)
2014: Xavier Thomas, SDSU (59)
There have been 12 first-round picks plucked from the Mountain West since the turn of the century, with only two from Colorado State (Roddy, Jason Smith), who joined the Mountain West in 1999-00.
Clifford, who will be 23-years-old on draft night, is in a draft filled with, well, young players. Of the top-25 players on Rookie Scale’s consensus board, Clifford is just one of three players who will be 21 or older on draft night—with 20 being 19 or younger.
Every team has its own board, which could hurt Clifford’s case to be a potential top-15 pick if a general manager wants to swing for upside. The Colorado State wing was one of the Mountain West’s best two-way players, but may not offer the upside that NBA general managers are targeting.
However, there’s no question that he helped his stock by returning to Colorado State for another season after testing the waters last year.
“It was a great decision. (Returning to Colorado State) helped me grow as a leader,” Clifford said Thursday, according to Yahoo Sports’ Krysten Peek. “It helped me become more confident as a player. It really catapulted this process going into this year. ... I know what to expect going through (the pre-draft process). I feel like I’m more prepared and I’m a more complete player.”
His stock is on the rise, but by how much?
Mock drafts from The Athletic (Sam Vecenie), ESPN (Jonathan Givony, Jeremy Woo) and Bleacher Report (Jonathan Wasserman) have Clifford going No. 16, 23 and 26, respectively. Though my unbiased opinion believes that the arrow is pointing upward with just over one month to go, a lot can still change between now and then, depending on how Clifford performs in pre-draft interviews and workouts with different teams in the middle of the first round.