Raptors' Markquis Nowell dictated play at Summer League

Amit Mann and Katie Heindl discuss the play of Markquis Nowell at Summer League. The rookie guard controlled the game, for better or for worse, and showed lots of potential. Full podcast on the latest Pascal Siakam reports and Summer League takeaways is on the 'Raptors Over Everything' podcast feed.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: Markquis Nowell, 12 points, 34% from the field, 33% from 3, 6.5 assists, which was fifth overall in Summer League, four turnovers per game. The last game against the Warriors, 17 points, 12 assists, three rebounds. Your thoughts on him, Mighty Mouse 2.0.

KATIE HEINDL: Yeah, energy guy, trash-talker, just like everywhere kind of on both ends of the floor, not always well, but like tries to be, get everywhere he can, reminds me a little bit of a Summer League Desmond Bane--

AMIT MANN: Love it.

KATIE HEINDL: --and the great things he went on to do. Desmond Bane, who I still wish the Raptors drafted. I remember they draft well.

AMIT MANN: I didn't want to mention that. I didn't want to mention that. But, OK, all right.

KATIE HEINDL: Yeah, but--

AMIT MANN: You did it. Good. That's fine.

KATIE HEINDL: We'll probably find more minutes with the 905, but that will be good because I think he'll have a leadership role there. I was really-- I also got to sit down and chat with him, and I was really impressed by just, on the floor, just kind of a whirlwind, a little bit of a Tasmanian devil, off the floor, really thoughtful, super calm, talks a lot about the game in terms of it being a bit of a chess board and liking to try and figure out moves as well in advance as he can, but acknowledging he's not 100% there yet, of course.

But a very cerebral player in that sense, which was really nice to hear. I think the team-- from what I've heard, the team is excited about the parallels between him, and his story, and his route to--

AMIT MANN: Who said that?

KATIE HEINDL: --to Fred VanVleet.

AMIT MANN: Who said that? OK, fine. I'm just joking. Keep your sources. I wish I had sources. My source is me.

KATIE HEINDL: But if you think about it, that is true. And I can see why they would be excited about something like that, especially given what they're going through right now. But yeah, overall, I think like, you know, grain of salt, take it with a grain of salt. But he could-- everything I mentioned, good developmental prospect, picturing him working with somebody like Jama again, I think that's a great fit.

And I think he will be a real fan favorite. I hope he does get minutes in Toronto. Hope we're not just seeing him in 905. I hope-- again, to go back to the pipeline, I hope we reconstruct that, and he gets to see the floor in Toronto just for, I don't know, early-- it could be early season minutes, slump minutes, late minutes, but I think he could be a good addition.

AMIT MANN: From what I saw in Summer League, what I liked about him is that he continued to dictate play with his style, right? Because at his height, 5" 7", I think he's 160 pounds, he has to dictate how things are going to go. And if he isn't, then he gets in trouble.

And as you mentioned, he wants to be a few steps ahead, chess, not checkers. It's important for him to maintain that speed, to maintain that aggression, and he did it constantly. He told me-- he's like, yeah, I'm a reserve guy off the court, but on the court, I want to rip your eyes out. And he kind of smiled, but not really.

MARKQUIS NOWELL: Yeah, I'm like a quiet assassin.

KATIE HEINDL: You seem like a reserved fellow.

MARKQUIS NOWELL: I'm reserved off the court, but when I'm on the court, it's just, I want to take your eyes out.

KATIE HEINDL: You got a softer side, I guess.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

KATIE HEINDL: We didn't talk about taking anybody's eyeballs.

AMIT MANN: No. I mean, from the Raptors coaching staff standpoint, with everything we understand about Darko, he wants to run high pick-and-rolls. And his ability to change speeds, the switching of gears is such an asset in a high pick-and-roll system.

Now, for him, he has to-- he already has the ball handling. He has the presence, the vision passing. I can't believe he's able to find these angles at his height because, obviously, they're not the same for him versus another person. But he finds these guys.

And he's got these small windows to make these passes. And they're even smaller for someone of his height. He constantly does it. That's why it's hard to bet against him. He's one of those guys that you're just like, I got a feeling. It may not be at a star in the NBA, but I feel like he could be a rotation player at some point, just like a DJ Augustin, who is 5' 11". Kemba Walker was a 6 foot.

Earl Boykins, 5' 5", 135 pounds. He played 12 years in the NBA, right? That's insane.

KATIE HEINDL: Yeah, there's good blueprints. He's got good blueprints.

AMIT MANN: Yeah, for sure, and he's been in contact with all those guys, from what he told me, that there is a bit of a fraternity with all of them. They try and help each other out. But for him to have on-court success, probably just keep on doing you, but also 3-point shooting, it has to get a little bit better, and his step-back shot, his 2-point pull-ups, similar to the other shorter players that have lasted in the NBA, you got to be deadly as a shooter.

And that's not there yet, but that's not to say that it can't get there. So good stuff from him. I love his aggression. I love his passion. Like, I saw him get a standing ovation in that first game, right? He got a standing ovation when he was like he got a--

KATIE HEINDL: When he fell, and he did the--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

KATIE HEINDL: Yeah, I got that on video.

AMIT MANN: It was a two-on-one--

KATIE HEINDL: It was great.

AMIT MANN: --and he somehow caught the pass going from one-- the ball handler to the other player. Like, wow, how did you do this? But it's anticipation. These are-- his IQ is really, really good. And one thing that, again, that I thought interesting that he said is that, I'm different than all these other guys that were playing at this height. I was like, damn, OK.

KATIE HEINDL: Well, you have to be. I'd argue you'd have to be for the league to still-- the league, which is sizing up all the time, and sizing out, right, with like wing size, like that, you'd have to be, or otherwise you wouldn't have made it this far.

You have to like take-- yeah, he's got blueprints, but how do you improve on those? Like, what are you going to do a little bit differently? You've got to already be way more of a developed-- like, again, we talked about this kind of cerebral sense, but like developed in whichever capacity, whether it's physicality.

You're kind of quartzite and all of that than they were because the game has just accelerated and advanced. So you got to keep up, but from what I've seen, speed wise, he can.

AMIT MANN: Yeah, definitely. He's got speed.

KATIE HEINDL: He's pretty quick.

AMIT MANN: Yeah, and he's got the vision passing, as I mentioned. Like, he's able to slow down the game, and he sees it at a unique-- at a unique level. So just yeah, good things for Markquis. I imagine he'll spend most of the season with the 905, but that's going to make that team really exciting.

KATIE HEINDL: Yeah. Yeah. I think so.