{"id":15258,"date":"2025-06-26T03:41:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T03:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/15258\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T03:41:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T03:41:08","slug":"chicago-bulls-pick-frances-noa-essengue-at-no-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/15258\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Bulls pick France’s Noa Essengue at No. 12"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Bulls took a swing in the NBA draft Wednesday night by selecting French teenager Noa Essengue with the No. 12 pick.<\/p>\n

A 6-foot-10 forward boasting a 7-1 wingspan, the 18-year-old Essengue was the second-youngest prospect in this draft class \u2014 and one of the latest arrivals. He was playing for Ulm in the playoffs of the Basketball Bundesliga, a top league in Germany, until Sunday, when he flew to the U.S. for a handful of private workouts before official draft activities began Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Essengue offers plenty of upside, including a versatile physical profile and an ability to play a variety of positions. But his game also brings plenty of wrinkles for the Bulls to iron out. Whether Essengue can grow into his stature, develop a reliable shot and learn to play through contact will define the overall success of this pick in the long term.<\/p>\n

Shooting jumps out on Essengue\u2019s draft profile \u2014 and not as a positive. He shot only 28.9% behind the 3-point arc this past season for Ulm. But Essengue excels in the open court, where he\u2019s a savvy rim runner who prides himself on efficient finishing at speed and around the basket.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I can do pretty much everything \u2014 shooting, passing the ball, attacking the rim \u2014 but my biggest strength right now is the open-court game,\u201d Essengue said.<\/p>\n

Essengue\u2019s versatility is another notable asset. He can theoretically slide between the three and five to fit different needs in a variety of lineups, although his most natural fit is likely as a four \u2014 a position already claimed by 2024 first-round pick Matas Buzelis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Essengue said he isn\u2019t picky about where he plays in Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I play, I feel good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Essengue \u2014 who\u2019s three days older than No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg<\/a>, the youngest player in the draft class \u2014 is too young to be familiar with the Bulls\u2019 dominant days. He was 4 the last time they reached the Eastern Conference finals and 8 the last time they made it past the first round.<\/p>\n

But that didn\u2019t lessen the teenager\u2019s impression of the franchise\u2019s legacy in the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just amazing,\u201d Essengue said. \u201cI maybe do not know the miracle Chicago Bulls, but everybody loved Michael Jordan\u2019s story. That\u2019s a legendary franchise with a lot of championships, a lot of rings. That\u2019s a big background.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NoaNoa Essengue poses on the red carpet before the first round of the NBA draft Wednesday, June 25, 2025, at the Barclays Center in New York. (Photo by Sarah Stier\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

This is only the first step of a busy offseason for the Bulls, who were eliminated from the play-in tournament<\/a> for the third year in a row after a 39-43 season. The previous season signaled an acceptance by the front office that change is necessary, resulting in the departures of former standouts DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Alex Caruso.<\/p>\n

Despite his notable wingspan, Essengue doesn\u2019t offer the same tangibles as other bigs in this draft \u2014 and he doesn\u2019t give the Bulls a clear succession plan for veteran center Nikola Vu\u010devi\u0107, who has made it clear<\/a> as he enters the final year of his contract that he doesn\u2019t wish to spend the end of his career mired in a rebuild.<\/p>\n

The Bulls have been actively shopping Vu\u010devi\u0107 for more than a year but chose not to trade him<\/a> at the deadline in February. With Essengue now in place, the Bulls will shift their focus toward moving Vu\u010devi\u0107 \u2014 while also pursuing a new deal with restricted free agent Josh Giddey<\/a> and potential plans for Patrick Williams, Lonzo Ball and other assets.<\/p>\n

Essengue will arrive in Chicago next week to begin preparing for the NBA Summer League on July 10-20 in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: June 25, 2025 at 8:43 PM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Bulls took a swing in the NBA draft Wednesday night by selecting French teenager Noa Essengue…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[11430,3127,2629,11435,15402,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-15258","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-arturas-karnisovas","9":"tag-chicago-bulls","10":"tag-nba-draft","11":"tag-nikola-vucevic","12":"tag-noa-essengue","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114747597609449817","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}