Noa Essengue\u2019s family is never far away \u2014 even with the Chicago Bulls rookie halfway across the world<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nBut even with those brief highlights, the game ultimately was defined by what the rookie still has to learn. He regularly underestimated the speed and physicality of defenders. His shots did not fall at the rim. And he struggled to hunt down loose balls, logging fewer rebounds than 5-foot-8 guard Yuki Kawamura.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to improve everything \u2014 my dribble, my shooting skills, my go to the basket,\u201d Essengue said. \u201cI missed a lot of shots, I did a lot of turnovers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s game also gave a first glimpse of how Essengue pairs with second-year forward Matas Buzelis, the No. 11 pick in 2024. Buzelis won a starting role by the end of his rookie season and is expected to start again this year. He had 17 points and five rebounds against the Raptors in the first of his two summer league outings, the latter of which will take place Monday against the Indiana Pacers.<\/p>\n
Essengue and Buzelis may be billed as similar players \u2014 even by the Bulls front office \u2014 but they carry starkly different builds. Buzelis might be a more lean version of a forward, but even as a rookie he looked comfortable in his body, possessing a bouncy explosiveness around the basket that defined his strength as a dunker.<\/p>\n
In comparison, Essengue is a bit more gangly, still growing into his hands and feet with a plodding stride. This physical awkwardness reflects the rookie\u2019s relative youth. A year might not seem like much of a difference, but the gap between 18 and 19 is quite wide \u2014 especially for a 6-10 forward who still has quite a bit of his frame to fill out.<\/p>\n
Their game is also noticeably different. With Essengue on the court, Buzelis shifted over to the 3 to shoulder a heftier load of ballhandling responsibilities, which afforded the Bulls more length at the perimeter. With the advantage of a year in the NBA in his favor, Buzelis showed a much higher ability to handle the ball in traffic. The pair found few opportunities to create for one another as Essengue took a more reactive approach on the offensive end.<\/p>\n
Buzelis encouraged the rookie after the loss, emphasizing that stars such as Giannis Antetokounmpo struggled heavily in their summer league debuts in a standard learning experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese games come so fast, you\u2019ve got to have a short memory,\u201d Buzelis said. \u201cI always tell him, \u2018You\u2019re great. You\u2019re going to be great. So you\u2019ve got to work on just moving onto the next play.\u2019 Next-play mentality every time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Summer league offers little time to obsess over a bad game. The Bulls will play on the same court less than 24 hours later with a Saturday night game against the Sacramento Kings.<\/p>\n
How Essengue responds to a lukewarm first outing will give Bulls fans more fuel \u2014 or, perhaps, a slight deterrent \u2014 for overreaction.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: July 11, 2025 at 11:01 PM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014\u00a0For NBA rookies, summer league is all about first impressions. But Noa Essengue struggled to stand…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":58790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[11430,42764,23604,960,3127,42766,2494,5386,1818,20510,42765,17460,40045,35848,15402],"class_list":{"0":"post-58789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-arturas-karnisovas","9":"tag-ayo-dosunmu","10":"tag-billy-donovan","11":"tag-chicago","12":"tag-chicago-bulls","13":"tag-coby-white","14":"tag-cooper-flagg","15":"tag-il","16":"tag-illinois","17":"tag-isaac-okoro","18":"tag-kevin-huerter","19":"tag-marc-eversley","20":"tag-matas-buzelis","21":"tag-nba-summer-league","22":"tag-noa-essengue"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114838607387253092","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58789","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=58789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}