A steering controller of an access point device can provide an optimized network environment or performance by steering a target client device to a basic service set (BSS) of a network device that is different from the current BSS of the target client device based on one or more non-associated client (NAC) link quality parameters to the BSS on the network device. The steering controller can identify the target client device based on a steering condition. A delta link quality can be determined based on the NAC link quality parameters and the target link quality parameters associated with the target client device. The steering controller can send one or more steering instructions to the target client device if a candidate BSS is identified based on a comparison between a determined maximum difference between a NAC link quality parameter and a target link quality parameter and an associated threshold.