Three basketball players from the Mountain West received invites to the 2025 NBA Combine this year, an event that begins today in Chicago and goes through next Sunday. It’s the most invites from the conference since 2020, which had an expanded pool of players participate in a virtual combine as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Colorado State wing Nique Clifford, San Diego State wing Myles Byrd and Nevada jumbo-guard Kobe Sanders will all showcase their skills for NBA scouts this week.
Each of those three (plus a few other players who began their careers at Mountain West schools) have a range of possibilities for potential draft spot and prospects for how their careers may fare. We’ll take a look at each for all of the prospects covered here.
The “Consensus Big Board” referenced for each player comes from rookiescale.com. It is, as the website explains (and in more detail), a compilation of media draft content that provides an overall view of where prospects are ranked by the whole of those who follow the NBA Draft process closely.
Nique Clifford (Colorado State)
- Consensus Big Board Rank: 20th
- Draft Day Age: 23.4
- Height: 6’5″
- Weight: 199
Clifford will hear his name called from the podium in the NBA Draft. It’d be a major surprise if he somehow didn’t. There is a world in which he falls from his current mid-to-late first round rating into the early, or even middle of, the second round as that’s happened to prospects before. But that’s something that can only be found out on draft weekend.
This year will actually be the second year in which Clifford participates in the combine as he was invited last year. That means we already have a decent amount of data on him, especially measurables. Clifford didn’t rank well among his peers in height or wingspan, ranking fifth-worst in standing reach (8’6″) and ninth-worst in wingspan (6’8″) among small forwards. What he did fare well in was the agility and speed tests, ranking sixth in lane agility, fourth in the three-quarter court sprint and fifth in vertical leap (38.0″). That’s good enough to indicate that while he may not be the tallest, there’s still plenty of room for him to fit in as a shooting guard and part-time small forward as opposed to the combo forward he was in college.
There probably won’t be too much change in Clifford’s combine measurements this year. Maybe he’ll up his vertical leap. Perhaps he’ll bulk up from the 198.6 lbs he weighed in at last year. Despite a likely lack of changes, the draft prospects for Clifford have skyrocketed compared to his 2024 trip through the process. His name was nearly impossible to find in mock drafts and big boards. This year? He’s all over them, with nearly all ranking him comfortably within the first round. Clifford’s dominance in the 2024-25 season did wonders for his professional career and will get him paid this summer.
Clifford will make for an enticing prospect as someone that possesses the full scoring suite of shooting, rim finishing and mid-range shooting with enough NBA size and athleticism for it to translate to the next level. He’s also a very underrated defender and that will make him a potential plug-and-play rookie for even playoff caliber teams. And while many casual observers will note Clifford’s age (he’ll turn 24 in the middle of his rookie season), NBA teams haven’t shied away from prospects due to age. In the previous 10 drafts, there have been 28 players that were at least 23 years old taken in the first round, an average of nearly three per year. Five players 23 or older were taken in the first round just last year. It’s unlikely to be a notable issue for teams, especially in the late first round where busts are easily stumbled into and teams often focus more on players they think can make the rotation rather than looking for long-term projects.
Myles Byrd (San Diego State)
- Consensus Big Board Rank: 47th
- Draft Day Age: 20.8
- Height: 6’7″
- Weight: 190
Byrd is different from his two conference counterparts in that he has college eligibility remaining. If, near the end of this early pr-draft process, Byrd isn’t happy with the evaluation or chances of getting drafted at a good position, he can withdraw from the draft. He has until May 28 to do so. And should he follow that path, Byrd has already stated he will return to play for San Diego State.
Pulling out of the draft may be in the best interest of Byrd unless he finds a team that gives him a guarantee in the early second round or, better yet, the late first round. Byrd can likely get drafted, but players who find themselves ranked beyond the low 30s can be at risk of falling pretty far, or even end up being undrafted. Rankings for second-round players are very often not accurate with the latter round capable of being very volatile. Teams often take fliers on players they specifically like and not those that the media deemed to be draft worthy. For someone ranked dangerously close to the bottom 10 picks of the draft, the safest bet is very much to return to San Diego State
Should Byrd remain, though, there’s a lot for a team to like. He may have NBA borderline elite length for a small forward/shooting guard with a reported wingspan of seven feet to pair with his 6-foot-7 height, the wingspan not being an official listing that will need to be confirmed by combine measurements. Byrd has showcased his ability to use this length to be an elite defender and is growing in competence on offense. But one of the the biggest things going in Byrd’s favor is that his biggest areas of concern — offensive efficiency and bulk — with more development time, via either another year in college or in joining an NBA team and working with their development staff.
Kobe Sanders (Nevada)
- Consensus Big Board Rank: Unranked
- Draft Day Age: 23.1
- Height: 6’9″
- Weight: 207
Sanders has the longest odds of getting drafted as he doesn’t even appear on the consensus board, showing a lack of attention for his draft prospects. The well isn’t completely empty, though, as Bleacher Report’s recent two-round mock draft predicted the Nevada wing would be taken 55th overall by the Los Angeles Lakers.
The biggest asset for Sanders is that he’s a ball-handling guard in a power forward’s body. That alone could make a team fall in love with him and get him into their organization, be it through the back end of the draft or as a two-way/UDFA. Sanders can hit shots pretty much anywhere on the court and has fantastic passing skills for a player his size.
What could end up working against him, though, is if Sanders goes to a team that tries to mold him into a 3-and-D wing. If he’s not allowed to have the kind of green light to be a 6-9 ball-handler, his potential could get wasted a bit. He’ll have to rely much more on whether he can defend at a high level and whether he can shoot 3-pointers effectively in spot-up situations. Sure, Sanders can do those things to some degree, but they aren’t his core strengths. His best path to the NBA may end up being a trip through the G-League where he can showcase his jumbo guard style to an NBA organization without being shoved into an off-ball role and having to excel there just to get a chance to prove his other talents.
In an ideal world, NBA scouts and front offices would be smart enough to know the strengths of the player they’re drafting and allow said player to lean into those positives. But we don’t live in an ideal world and Sanders may end up in a serious uphill battle because of it.
Potential undrafted free agents not at combine
The following are players who one should keep an eye on as post-draft signings with G-League squads or perhaps even two-way deals. Their draft stock isn’t high enough to be considered a bona-fide prospect, but they’ll have a chance to make it into the league the long way around.
- Tyson Degenhart (BSU)
- Ian Martinez (USU)
- Nelly Junior Joseph (UNM)
- Alvaro Cardenas (BSU/SJSU)
Each of these players have NBA skills, but there are obvious weaknesses for all of them Degenhart is skilled for a forward his size but his struggles in 3-point shooting and a lack of dynamic athleticism hurts his stock greatly. Martinez has good scoring, shooting and athleticism, but his 6-foot-3 stature and streakyness aren’t going to be looked upon favorably. Joseph has a similar hangup to Martinez where he’s a bit short for his archetype standing 6-foot-9 as a rim-running/rim-protecting center (though it should be noted that that height isn’t super problematic as there are multiple 6-foot-9 centers in the league). Cardenas is in a pretty similar boat to Darius Brown from last year, he has all the skills any team wants in a point guard, but a smaller size (6-foot-1) and a perceived lack of athleticism and quickness will end up holding him back in the evaluation stage.
MW players that transferred to different colleges and are entering draft
Max Shulga (VCU, played at Utah State)
Shulga played two year post-USU, both at VCU and he made a name for himself with the Rams, becoming the A-10 Player of the Year this past season after averaging 15.0 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.8 steals. He isn’t in the consensus top 60 draft prospects is a pretty bad sign. Which is a shame. A versatile, fairly athletic, 6-foot-4 wing isn’t something that grows on trees and Shulga is just that kind of player. He can do a bit of everything.
John Tonje (Wisconsin, played at Colorado State)
Tonje barely sneaks into the consensus big board, checking in at 57th. He’s on the older side, already 24 years old, but a truly remarkable season at Wisconsin in which he was a Consensus Second Team All-American has him at least on the minds of NBA scouts. It’s a nice success story for a guy who had to wade through three years of being a role player at Colorado State. Transferred. Then got injured eight games into his season at Missouri in 2023-24. Then finally got back on track this year with Wisconsin.
Darrion Williams (Texas Tech, played at Nevada)
Williams earned Mountain West Freshman of the Year honors way back in 2022-23, but spent the last two years at Texas Tech honing his craft and is now a two-time All-Big 12 player. He checks in a little higher than Tonje on the consensus board, but not by much, ranking 49th. Williams has some eligibility left, so he may opt to return to college. He did enter the transfer portal at the same time he put his name in the draft, so he may not end up playing with the 2023-24 Mountain West Freshman of the Year, JT Toppin as he did last season.
