{"id":61359,"date":"2025-07-13T04:38:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T04:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/61359\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T04:38:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T04:38:08","slug":"noa-essengue-showed-growth-in-summer-league-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/61359\/","title":{"rendered":"Noa Essengue showed growth in summer league game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Noa Essengue is learning from his mistakes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The rookie knows that\u2019s the only way to grow in the hectic environment of the NBA Summer League<\/a>. In the 22 hours separating his first and second game with the Chicago Bulls, Essengue logged three separate film sessions to pore over every detail of his subpar debut against the Toronto Raptors and prepare for the Sacramento Kings.<\/p>\n

It was the most film the forward had ever watched in a single day \u2014 and the first time he had ever played games on back-to-back days \u2014 but Essengue welcomed the new reality of the NBA schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed it,\u201d Essengue said. \u201cIt was really important to just bounce back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The change wasn\u2019t dramatic, but Essengue displayed a few more pieces of evidence to support Chicago\u2019s case for taking him No. 12 in the draft<\/a> earlier this summer. He swatted a shot away on the break and finished a few of his own in transition. Most importantly, Essengue reignited his activity to pursue rebounds, logging a total of 10 \u2014 including four offensive boards \u2014 to finish the first half with a double-double.<\/p>\n

The growing pains remained \u2014 Essengue went 0-for-4 from 3-point range and missed the rim entirely on two shots. The rookie\u2019s youth showed every time he drove to the basket, struggling to match the physicality and strength of opposing defenders who bumped him off his intended path.<\/p>\n

But Essengue made the tangible changes that can be asked of and expected from a rookie in a 24-hour turnaround between his first and second summer league game. He drew a pair of shooting fouls to get himself to the line and improved his tracking of the ball to pursue second-chance opportunities. Most importantly, the rookie only turned the ball over once after coughing up seven turnovers in his debut Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe definitely wasn\u2019t thinking as much,\u201d summer league coach Billy Donovan III said. \u201cHe cut the dribbles down and I thought he was decisive with what he was doing. It\u2019s going to get better and better. \u2026 He\u2019s only 18, but he acts like he\u2019s 25 or 26. He\u2019s a very mature kid. He\u2019s very self-aware.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Noa Essengue\u2019s family is never far away \u2014 even with the Chicago Bulls rookie halfway across the world<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That progress, however, was cut short midway through the third quarter when Essengue suffered a right leg injury while attempting to fight through a screen. The rookie immediately went down while appearing to favor his right thigh, then exited the game. After several minutes on the bench, Essengue walked back to the locker room on his own.<\/p>\n

Essengue returned to the sideline for the fourth quarter with a pack of ice taped to his right thigh, but was ruled out for the remainder of the game. He finished with 12 points, 10 rebounds, an assist, a steal and a block.<\/p>\n

After the game, the rookie said he took a knee to the top of his own knee during that screen, resulting in a contusion. The Bulls remain hopeful that he will be able to return for the remainder of summer league \u2014 beginning with Monday\u2019s game against the Indiana Pacers.<\/p>\n

Here are three other takeaways from Saturday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

1. Lachlan Olbrich was challenged<\/p>\n

One of the main questions that Lachlan Olbrich<\/a> needs to answer in the summer league is whether or not he can play the 5.<\/p>\n

At 6-foot-10, the forward is at risk of being labeled a \u201ctweener\u201d \u2014 too small to reliably handle centers in the paint, but too bulky to operate on the perimeter. Saturday\u2019s game provided an ideal matchup for Olbrich to test himself against the Kings\u2019 Maxime Raynaud, a 7-foot-1 center who was dead set on dominating the paint.<\/p>\n

The matchup challenged Olbrich, who logged 12 points and six rebounds in the loss. The forward regularly seemed lost on defense, allowing Raynaud ample opportunity to navigate the paint. He missed all of his 3-point attempts and logged only five rebounds, allowing several offensive boards by the Kings after rotating off his man.<\/p>\n

Although he has already secured a two-way deal, Olbrich will still have to make significant improvements to work into the Bulls\u2019 lineup.<\/p>\n

2. Javon Freeman-Liberty is auditioning<\/p>\n

While the focus might be on the rookies, Javon Freeman-Liberty has been the most reliable scorer for the Bulls through the first two games of the summer league. After logging 21 points in Friday\u2019s loss to Toronto, Freeman-Liberty led the Bulls again Saturday with 21 points.<\/p>\n

Freeman-Liberty is trying to elevate himself from the G League into two-way territory this season. The Chicago native and DePaul product worked his way onto the full NBA roster for the Toronto Raptors in the 2023-24 season after initially signing a two-way deal, but he was waived last July. While he is well set for another stint with the Windy City Bulls this season, his summer league audition could set the stage for a two-way deal elsewhere.<\/p>\n

3. Matas Buzelis gets the night off<\/p>\n

The Bulls opted not to play second-year forward Matas Buzelis in Saturday\u2019s game, which was a back-to-back after a Friday night matchup with the Toronto Raptors. Buzelis started in that game \u2014 a 116-72 loss \u2014 in which he tallied 17 points and five rebounds.<\/p>\n

Buzelis will play in Monday\u2019s game against the Indianapolis Pacers, which will be his last outing of the summer league.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Noa Essengue is learning from his mistakes. The rookie knows that\u2019s the only way to grow in the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":61360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[23604,960,3127,5386,1818,44199,17240,2184,40045,35848,15402,3143],"class_list":{"0":"post-61359","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-billy-donovan","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-bulls","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-illinois","13":"tag-javon-freeman-liberty","14":"tag-lachlan-olbrich","15":"tag-las-vegas","16":"tag-matas-buzelis","17":"tag-nba-summer-league","18":"tag-noa-essengue","19":"tag-sacramento-kings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114844080904019023","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61359","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=61359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}