The Sacramento Kings surprised the NBA world yesterday when they traded Nique Clifford to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for two second-round picks. Not so much from a basketball standpoint, as Clifford was outside the rotation after a strong rookie season last year, but from an asset management perspective.

Scott Perry traded a protected future first-round pick to acquire Clifford from, coincidentally (or maybe not so coincidentally), the Thunder. So the Kings essentially traded a future late first-round pick for two future second-round picks and a rental of Clifford. That's...not great, and it's no wonder so many people are looking down on the move for Sacramento.

Even taking out the logistics of the assets, it's still not a great look for the Kings. Clifford looked like he could turn into a solid role player in his rookie season, which for a late first-round pick, is a pretty decent find in any draft.

But instead, he fell out of the rotation in favor of Daeqwon Plowden and Leaky Black early this season, and never looked comfortable on the court. And maybe that and whatever the Kings were seeing in practice was enough. It must have been for them to pull the trade off this early in the season. And in a season where figuring out who works next to Darius Acuff Jr., making that call early actually makes a lot of sense.

What Happens Next

While what Clifford does with the Thunder is still completely up in the air, the Kings' rotations just got a little bit simpler. In a season where they have almost too many role players, Clifford getting moved opens up the Kings to give other players who they think are a better fit next to Acuff a shot.

For now, that appears to be Leaky Black, and while the 27-year-old journeyman may not be the long-term answer at the forward spot, even off the bench, his style of play should inform Perry and the front office what works well and what doesn't next to Acuff.

Black is a true three-and-D player who's out there to predominantly do those two things. Clifford was a Swiss Army knife of a player who could do a little bit of everything, but wasn't a particularly good shooter. It's possible that the Kings just learned that style of player doesn't work next to Acuff.

On the other side of the spectrum, the duo of Acuff and Malik Monk has been working well lately, which is a different style of player than Clifford as a main ball handler next to Monk. The Kings tried to turn Clifford into a point guard, but it never felt like he was fit for that role, and it could be argued was the Kings mishandling that led to his diminished returns on.

But regardless, the silver lining is that the Kings don't have to experiment with Clifford in the mix anymore. In a season where getting answers for the future is one of, if not the most, important things, that's at least a little bit of a win. They can focus more on the players that are left rather than having to split everyone's role up into an even smaller slice of the pie.

Could they be wrong and see Clifford become an awesome role player on the Thunder? Absolutely. But at least the Kings aren't just sitting around waiting for the season to end. Now we just have to hope this isn't the only move of the year.