Raptors roll dice on tiny NCAA star point guard Markquis Nowell

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Gradey Dick wasn’t the only potential new Raptor added on Thursday night.

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The sharp-shooting Kansas wing was taken 13th overall by Toronto and the Raptors later returned to the Sunflower State to sign former Kansas State guard Markquis Nowell.

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If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Nowell had one of the all-time great NCAA Tournament performances earlier this year in his native New York City, when he had 19 assists and 20 points in an overtime win that powered the Wildcats into the Elite Eight.

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He scored 17.6 points per game and his 8.3 assists average were second in all of college basketball. He also averaged 2.6 steals. Nowell clearly is one of the top passers in his draft class and he also hit 89% of his free-throw attempts and 35.5% of NCAA-distance three-point attempts.

So why was Nowell undrafted and available to anyone with interest? He’s just 5-foot-8, which would make him the NBA’s shortest player should he see any games with the big club (a two-way contract means a player can play either for the NBA team or its G League affiliate) and he’s a senior. Teams usually look for freshmen or sophomores because of their perceived upside over upperclassmen.

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Potential new teammate Fred VanVleet also went undrafted after an even more prominent NCAA career, but VanVleet is about four inches, 30-40 pounds heavier and is himself one of the league’s smaller floor generals.

“When you plan, God laughs,” Nowell tweeted. “Thank you God for everyone. Toronto here we come.”

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“What I’m getting from NBA teams, every workout he’s been in, I’ve gotten a call and they said he was the best player, and it was the best workout they had because of the energy he brought and how competitive he made it,” Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang told the Topeka Capital-Journal.

“And I tell them, at some point in time if you’ve got the guy who’s the best player in all the workouts, being around 5-foot-7 doesn’t need to matter anymore.

“And so believing that some team, whether they call his name in the draft, or they sign him to a two-way or give them an invite to camp, some team’s going to bring him in. And if you give this kid a chance, I’m not going to bet against him.”

Toronto has had success with small point guards in the past, including with the team’s first star, 5-foot-10, 170-pound Damon Stoudamire, 5-foot-3, 136-pound Muggsy Bogues, slim 6-footer (though this was always a generous listing) T.J. Ford, VanVleet and Kyle Lowry (who, granted, is a lot stockier and plays like a forward).

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Former Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas was the final pick of his draft and became an all-star at 5-foot-9. Another New Yorker, pesky New Orleans Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado, has established himself as a solid player in the league. He can also look to 5-foot-9 Nate Robinson, a former slam-dunk champion who averaged 11 points a game in his long career as inspiration.

The New York Post reported Nowell has already chatted with Robinson, Thomas, Bogues and Alvarado, amongst others.

“I’m trying to keep short guards relevant,” Nowell told The Post. “There’s not many of us in the NBA that’s playing at a high level. I want to put on for them.”

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He said of his strong workouts with teams: “I just wanted to show that size doesn’t really matter when you play this game. It’s about how hard you work and how smart you are.”

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Nowell and Dick actually squared off twice this season, with Kansas State shocking the Jayhawks by a point in one of the meetings. Nowell struggled in the follow-up loss, while two of Dick’s worst games of the year happened to be when facing the Wildcats.

The Raptors will continue to add prospects to play for them at the Las Vegas summer league next month. Jon Chepkevich of DraftExpress reported Friday that Desmond Cambridge Jr., a fifth-year senior who last played at Arizona State, will play for the Raptors there. The 6-foot-4 guard was the Ivy League rookie of the year and set Brown’s freshman scoring record back in 2017-18. He also played for Nevada.

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