By Chris Williams, CycloneFanatic.com Publisher
Last week, I interviewed Craig Brackins for CycloneFanatic.com. If you missed it, HERE’S THE LINK.
I haven’t had a chance to catch up with Marquis Gilstrap yet, but the former Cyclone is starting to grab a few headlines.
Therookiewall.com recently posted THIS ARTICLE featuring Marquis. We’re 21 days away from the 2010 NBA Draft and The Rookie Wall currently projects Gilstrap to be a second-round pick. That appears to be a best-case scenario type of projection for Gilstrap.
As of now, neither NBADraft.net nor NBADraftexpress.comhave Gilstrap being drafted at all.
According to The Rookie Wall’s report, Gilstrap has recently been turning some heads, specifically with his ability to rebound the basketball on the defensive end.
“He rebounds the ball so well on the defensive end that he ranks ahead of projected first round picks Derrick Favors, Wesley Johnson, Ed Davis, Gordon Hayward, Hassan Whiteside, Larry Sanders and Paul George, just to name a few,” the piece says.
The article goes on to compliment Gilstrap on his outside shooting and it also compares the former Cyclone to Paul Millsap of the Utah Jazz.
Marquis gave the following quote to The Rookie Wall regarding what he is hearing about his draft status.
“I’m hearing that I’m a mid/late second-round pick, but if I continue to improve my game, which I think I have since I’ve been working with Joe Connelly, I think when I go to NBA workouts I will impress a lot of people when they see the improvement I have made over the past month.”
In another notable link, HERE ARE Gilstrap’s stats from this year’s Portsmouth Invitational. His 7.7 points per game and 5.7 rebounds per game were pretty bland in the whole scheme of things.
One of my NBA contacts told me this morning that “with that performance, Gilstrap might have played his way out of the draft.”
We’ll just have to wait and see on that one. Individual workouts seem to mean a lot during this process. A couple of good ones could change everything.
The 2010 NBA Draft is on June 24.
