Scott Perry on Kings trade up for Nique Clifford, how he fits Sacramento’s desired identity

Scott Perry on Kings trade up for Nique Clifford, how he fits Sacramento’s desired identity

here tonight i I really do thank you for for staying late like this appreciate your patience um and also want to thank the staff here the Sacramento Kings staff from my front office group to the support staff uh to the coaches uh a lot goes in to draft night and draft prep and a lot of people spend a lot of our hours uh working to make things happen and presenting the Sacramento Kings in a very positive light while we try to find prospective players to come here who we think are going to help this basketball team moving forward you know I said to you all in my initial press conference that the one of the most important things I wanted to get accomplished this year is to establish the identity of what it means to be a Sacramento Kings basketball player and so going into draft prep and I just been here two months that has been our mission what we work towards each and every day as a staff as a group to find players who are going to fit that identity as a reminder things that are important that we’re going to value here competitive tough team oriented accountable disciplined and professional and so you know with that we selected a young man tonight by the name of Nick Clifford from Colorado State who we believe displays and lives a lot of those values uh that are important to us so we’re excited about that obviously we were able to to uh take advantage and move into this draft into the first round we came into the night with not having the first round pick but we were fortunate enough that we were able to get something done he was a guy that we really targeted we had a really good grade on and so we feel like we uh were fortunate to get there and get him he’s very versatile as a player uh he’s a two-way player you’ve heard me say that before and you’re going to hear me say that a lot guy that plays both sides of the uh the floor and that’s important to what we want to get established here he’s improved each and every year throughout his career he’s an improving three-point shooter uh so again we’re excited to get him in the Kings uniform and and uh help develop him watch him grow and I’m sure for the fan base here in Sacramento you’ll find what a quality young man he is the more you get to know him and that’s important to us as well someone who wants to be here and is going to assimilate himself very well into the culture here in Sacramento so with that being said I will open it up to some some questions hi Scott how you doing good how you doing good um was uh so was Ne kind of the guy that you had your eye on were there were there a number of guys that you were watching to fall to a certain range walk us through how this kind of happened he obviously he was one of the key guys that we looked at there there were a number of players that we did like in the draft but again in terms of fitting the identity he was a small group of guys that uh we had really had identified and we were just fortunate enough to be able to get in in that position to get him and one of the things I said to to all of you in the beginning too when I first got here we were going to be very prudent and opportunistic so uh it it all you know worked out tonight we again we put a lot of effort into uh studying this draft and kind of finding out where we thought people may go and uh really kind of surprised he dropped really to to where he did but happy that he did and uh again just excited to get to work with him scott walking walking into the building did you enter today with the intention of of moving into the first round at what point when you noticed the would potentially be there did you feel like you had to start making calls and pouncing uh in intention is a strong word but again like I said being uh prudent and opportunistic i think if it presented itself we were going to be ready and you know one of the things you do over the couple months you you know we talk to every team in the league and you get uh there’s a lot of chatter that goes in and around the draft as you all know and and you in the podcast world for sure i’m sure Matt keeps up with that and so um we were prepared though for it and so we weren’t going to be reckless so it had to be someone that we really thought was worthy of moving into the first round uh to go get that we we feel like could help our basketball team uh not only in the short term but as we move forward as we continue to build out this roster and this organization scott uh when you look at Meek and how he fits into your roster can you just dive into that for us as well and the fact that he’s a fiveyear guy 23 years old that that factor into you guys to take him tonight one thing for me that’s always been important and uh is a guy’s production and his arc of improvement and uh I think he’s demonstrated both of those things and I know we live in a world now where a lot of the players that are selected high in the draft usually are you know one and done and um people you know don’t want to pass on the potential of a lot of the great young players but for me uh getting a guy like this who is ready both mentally and physically to maybe step on the basketball court this coming season I think is important now obviously he’s going to have to come here and earn his stripes and show that he’s worthy of that but I really believe that he is up to the challenge uh enjoy really getting the chance to spend time with him and talk with him when we were in Chicago he was one of the the young men we were able to interview and get the chance to meet so um felt like you know had a good handle on him and so uh looking forward to to working with him scott I know some other things will be explained later though but once again uh Kings have have a guard and it actually is look like a exceptional selection but uh how are you going to juggle this type of thing when you already guard heavy right now well you know here’s a guy that plays small forward in college so he’s very versatile and I think if you look at the league now it’s about having depth i mean you look at the two teams that were in the finals this year and and the the ultimate champion in Oklahoma City both Oklahoma City and Indiana were very deep and very versatile guys that can play multiple positions this guy played with the ball in his hands he can play all the perimeter positions so we it was just important to get the talent in here and the rest will figure itself out that’s why we got Doug Christie in here as the coach and uh I’m confident he’s going to be able to figure that out scott when you bring up Doug u one of the player comps for Nick is Doug Christie do you see that do you see the type of player that Doug was when he was in the pros and how do you think that that will help they look alike don’t they that’s one way uh there’s some similarities for sure you know I’m trying to I’m dating back into my memory bank remembering Doug’s game a little bit you know obviously Doug was I felt was a very highly conditioned athlete and uh excellent defender and could do a lot of different things on the court u I think so the similarities in terms of defensive versatility yeah I I see that similarity uh but I want him to be his own player i’m not when when you get into comparisons I never want to put that type of expectation or pressure on any type of player want him to be himself his natural self now if his natural self ends up looking like Doug Christie then great for us you know um but I want him to be the very best knee Clifford he can be and uh I think this young man is going to give himself a chance to do that scott back here just did how did you view the the first round overall and just how it went and you know when it comes to Nick was it a surprise that he he went as low as he did in your eyes someone that you’re kind of targeting and he was someone that we had on our board a little higher than what we ultimately were able to draft him at uh but that’s the draft you never know as much as you talk to other teams you really never know what’s going on in their building how they make their final decisions you know some teams you feel like you have a better guest on than others um so being opportunistic and being ready so when you see someone of that caliber that we had you know ranked fairly high in this draft u we thought it was important to be able to take the opportunity to go ahead and make this trade and uh get him in our in our uniform and get him a part of of our program hey Scott you mentioned Nick getting better year after year um what how much do you factor that into just your evaluation of a player and how much is it en encouraging for continued growth from this point oh I I think that’s very important uh for for any player regardless of position or where they play that it’s demonstrates to me the game matters to him that each year he uh he probably stepped away from the game and said “Okay what do I need to get better at?” and he did the necessary work to show that improvement so it can’t stop now just because he made the NBA we’re going to expect that type of approach from him and hopefully his career arc continues to change now obviously when you come into the pros as a rookie you’re playing against the best in the world the speed of the game is a little bit faster some of the terminology may be a little bit different so there’ll be a little bit of a learning curve but he’s a guy who has exhibited very good basketball IQ as a collegiate so I expect that to continue here i expect him to be a sponge and and I expect our coaching staff will do a very good job with putting their arms around him and helping him to develop in the very best way that he can scott your first move was the hiring of of Doug Christie this is your first player personnel move i’m just curious from your perspective of hitting the ground running as the GM of the Kings what you think about this this first month and having this be your first player related well this month first couple months have been a whirlwind as as you all know and seemed like all the days running together uh two months has really flown by uh for me but every it’s been great it really has been great again working with the entire staff here getting to know one another um you know when I talk about King’s identity it it doesn’t doesn’t just extend to the coaches and players on the floor extends to the front office support staff you know we’re trying to build something special here um as a organization and as a team so that’s what I really feel good about i feel like the energy is coming together uh each and every day so and I’m excited that uh to be sitting here who were able to make a move coming into this draft and when I took this job I was set on drafting just a number 42 pick because you never know if you’re able to make a transaction but just the way things happened uh it made sense for us to do that we felt and uh happy about that and so um really feel confident that Nick has a chance to be a contributor here for for the Sacramento Kings scott are you able to characterize in any sense of just the atmosphere in that room um being here for your first draft and just I know there’s a whole another day to go but um I know people are like you know I was here for another draft before exactly that was a very busy draft exactly but go ahead just how do you kind of characterize maybe that room just you know the activity on your guys but some of you guys obviously getting a chance to know me you know so I’m not I’m focused i’m professional but I’m easygoing too and so uh I think the the room what I was most impressed with is everybody in that room is very prepared but I also want to keep everybody loose and comfortable and let’s enjoy the journey and enjoy the process so I think if you talk to anybody that was in there um was a lot of hard work coming to the end but I mean throughout this draft process but um we had a good time we had a good time in there as well and um looking forward to having many more together we got another one tomorrow night now that’s I’ve experienced a ton in this league as all of you know been around the league a long time but this will be a first for me going to the second night of the draft because before I’d still be up in the war war room where we just be finishing the second round so uh I get a chance to go home and get a night sleep before the second round tomorrow so that’s new for me but I’m enjoying that too uh Scott at uh at 24 you talk about being opportunistic was that something that kind of came together at the end or were you kind of eyeing that spot with Oklahoma City at 24 the whole night you you know you work on a lot of different things throughout the process and so you have a number of conversations that you know hopefully that you prepared for going into the night so if certain things work a certain way that makes for easier conversations and um you know obviously um when you talk about Oklahoma City Sam Prey is someone that I work with in Seattle and and a friend and so And obviously he’s he’s excellent at what he does and so things just came together that made sense for both him and us and that’s when you talk about consummating trades and that’s why it’s so difficult because each team has an objective and a lot of times they don’t always align but we were just fortunate enough in this situation for what they were needing to do aspired to do and what we wanted to do there was some alignment there and uh that’s why we’re able to complete the trade scott can you just speak a little bit to you know kind of your your summer plans in terms of roster construction what you feel like needs to be done here um how important the draft is in terms of that process and whether decisions on players in the draft might correlate or not to sort of those broader goals look in the beginning like we said there’s a handful of ways you can improve your team that’s obviously obviously everyone it’s the draft free agency and trades so we’re going through the draft process now to add to make our team better we’re looking to enhance the identity so next phase free agency we want to enhance the identity of of this basketball team to those six values that I mentioned earlier to you all so uh once we’re done with the draft we turn the page there we get ready for free agency on the night of June 30th and we see what we can add to make this team better and so um when that is over I’m sure I’ll sit in front of you again and talk to you about the end of the free agency process so but right now uh focus is on finishing the job tomorrow night with the second round and uh see if we can get some additional help u in the draft hi Scott congrats on night one uh can you disclose the actual terms of the trade especially with the protections well we traded a future protected 2027 pick which was uh it’s San Anton the San Antonio pick that we held the rights to so it’s the 2027 San Antonio pick that’s protected one through 16 if it doesn’t convey that night then it automatically kicks to two second round picks in that same draft ours and Charlotte so that is the the conditions of the trade there hey Scott I was just wondering what players currently on the roster do you feel like Nick compliments really well and what guys are you excited to see him play alongside well you know interesting question for me obviously because you know I haven’t worked with this group the beauty of Nick is his versatility and so that’s I’m really looking forward to that to see who he fits with but I I think he’s the kind of guy that’s going to fit with a number of guys on the roster because of that versatility he’s he doesn’t have to be in just one particular spot on the floor to be helpful and to succeed so um that’s the great thing about him when you get someone that versatile is just really seeing you know what’s going to be the best area or areas and and that’s our anticipation that he’s going to be able to help in a variety of ways as I said in the beginning on both ends of the floor and that’s very important to us because again as you see the teams that go the distance not only can they score but more importantly they’re defensive oriented they can all defend and and the more you move up the ranks the better the teams get and the better the teams defend the better chance you have of uh winning and being successful thank you thanks everybody

Sacramento Kings general manager Scott Perry spoke with reporters Wednesday night following their trade into the first round to select Colorado State guard/wing Nique Clifford.

He discussed their process moving up, how Clifford fits the identity he wants to cultivate in Sacramento, and more.

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