K.C. Johnson breaks down Bulls selecting Noa Essengue at No. 12 overall in 2025 NBA Draft

K.C. Johnson breaks down Bulls selecting Noa Essengue at No. 12 overall in 2025 NBA Draft

was uh kind of exactly what you told us was going to happen they got a guy who runs the floor who plays their style who can help with a finish on offense and certainly can defend all over the place uh a young teenage Frenchman drafted by the Chicago Bulls what was your initial thought when it unfolded uh not a surprise uh we actually first talked about his name uh the night of the lottery so I mean he’s been linked to the Bulls for a while we’ve been talking about him on our station for a while and on our podcast for a while um definitely a bet on upside uh it’s pretty well known now he’s the second youngest player in the draft behind Cooper Flag cooper Flag is if he’s healthy a lock he’s he’s the real deal uh no senate is uh got some boom potential and uh you don’t want to say it with an 18-year-old cuz it’s pretty young in the developmental project but he’s got some bus potential i mean you don’t know where this kid’s going to go you’d like to think given the trajectory Modis Buzzales is on the Bulls are going to get two in a row right here um but you know there’s a lot of unknowns with him but certainly a lot of upside and certainly fits with the way they’re playing stylistically how is this similar and how is it different from the types of things we were saying a year ago at this time after the Bulls drafted Mataselis i think well the similar thing is they both played professional basketball right with Mus playing for the G-League Ignite until that disbanded and um you know this kid telling us in his Zoom call last night just how much playing professionally the last few years in Germany um has helped him not only on the court but but off the court what’s different um you know this is a guy that doesn’t have a lot of American experience and Mark Eversley talked about last night not only the process the Bulls are going to have assimilating him on the court but also off the court i mean Modis Buzzelis was from here had a strong family support system i don’t know Noah SN’s living arrangement for next season i don’t know if people from his family are going to be coming over here to support him but there’s going to be a development pro process not only basketball-wise but life-wise i mean this this uh you know this kid is is very young and he’s you know obviously been away from home before playing professionally in Germany and growing up in France but this is going to be a whole new experience for him so there’s going to be a lot thrown at him i personally have probably lower expectations for what he’s going to do on his court his rookie season than Musellis but maybe he’ll prove me wrong um that’s not to say he can’t be a great player it’s just there there’s quite a bit of difference in terms of you know just how much is going to be on his plate coming over uh from from overseas um I I do not know the quality of play in the German basketball league um KC so he started playing professionally as a 16-year-old there um does that mean I I don’t know what it means how how I I mean just looking at it on uh on video from uh from YouTube it just doesn’t seem I I what’s it equate to is it is there a college conference is it more like a level below the G- League i I don’t even I couldn’t even figure out how competent the opposition was
yeah i mean I I can’t claim to be an expert in that league either i mean a lot of my knowledge comes from talking to Chris Fleming the former Bulls assistant who who coached in that in that league and and has a lot of roots in international basketball in Germany um so you know I’m not going to sit here and pretend I’m an expert on that league um what I will tell you is that um I not only heard no SN in my conversations with some people you know associated with the Bulls but also associated with other teams i mean this is not a it’s not like the Bulls are reaching picking him at 12 he was mocked everywhere from 8 to 14 maybe so I mean this is a guy that um just really fits with the trends of today’s NBA with his ability to run the court in transition um his length his defensive versatility so I mean it’s not like you know whereas that league may may not be as known as um some of the other international leagues it’s not like he’s a complete surprise coming at 12 so um let’s see what happens when he gets over here for summer league practice and that’s just the first step for sure
have to ask this because people have wondered and I did myself last night when you hear that he left his German league team in the championship final to be in the green room on the night he was drafted uh how did he explain that decision and was it in full did he have the full support of his coaches and and family back uh involved in the German league
yeah uh your guy Cody Westerland asked him that on the Zoom good question um I actually did not know that detail until uh last night um and he you know addressed it head-on he said he talked about it with his coaching staff uh they gave him his full support he said it was a tough decision um but they told him to go live his dream this is a once in a-lifetime opportunity obviously and he talked about getting to New York with his family and enjoying the experience and meeting his you know the rest of his rookie draft class um actually had an experience with uh fellow countryman Joe Kim Noah um you know once he was in New York so um yeah I mean I sure that has to be a hard decision it’s not like I we went in depth on it but uh you know being drafted in the NBA is also a once in a lifetime experience and and being in New York so um you know something we can certainly follow up on once he gets over here um I I’m just curious the um the basketball bundes league uh does does that you know he he he’s more finisher than scorer can he shoot will he learn how to shoot i I’m just curious about the skill set and and how that translates okay so I I just I not only talk to people with the Bulls but I I talked to two scouts after the pick just to get their thoughts one that had seen him play uh that’s based here and one with a little more international flavor they definitely say right right what I was told is that he’s definitely more advanced defensively than offensively right now which you know probably isn’t the worst thing in the world and then as far as the shooting what what I was told is that you know the percentage is not not be great but the form is solid so if you got a base of that to work with and you’re 18 and a half and you put the work in you’ve got some potential to grow there um he did talk to us on the Zoom about his finishing ability he actually cited that as probably his most advanced offensive trait as of right now mark Eversley also pointed to that his ability to get downhills the ability to get to the line look the guy’s long he He’s got a lot of length um you know uh I’m not going to get claim sit here and claim that I’m an expert on his offensive game because I’m you know basing this on conversations with people in the same YouTube videos you guys are watching but um but yeah I mean there’s certainly the potential there um I had one person tell me and this look everything on draft night is you know pie in the sky optimism and I I I’m not a big comp guy but I asked one of the international guys I talked to high-end comp and he said Pascal Seakum and let’s let’s let’s tap the brakes on that because I’m just telling you high-end comp but that’s that’s what I was told so um let’s see where it goes from here casey we’re talking to Mark Eversley at 9:00 and looking forward to that conversation and you heard him last night begin the press conference or near the beginning address Billy Donovan’s future and why they believe he is the right coach at the right time we know that and certainly there’s been reporting that suggests that they Mark Eversley and and Arturus Carnosis are going to be here now uh for an extended period of time does this move reflect all of that and if they weren’t so secure in their jobs would they have made the same choice do you believe
uh that’s a great second question really speculative so I don’t have a great answer what I would say is two things to that they’ve talked about patience from the jump like shortly after the season ended so um I do think security probably played a small part of that that said and I want to emphasize this pretty strongly they took inherited a young roster filled with developmental projects from uh John and Gar in 2020 we expected them to continue that process given AK’s uh history with Denver and how that franchise was built they built they drafted and they held on to their guys and they had a lot of continuity and they had a lot of patience they blew that up very unexpectedly in 2021 this is old news well documented they made big swings and big splashes they got out of that game and I’ve from a lot regardless of a contract situation this to me is going to be a process they’ve made that clear picking modest is one step to that certainly that doubles down with an addition of an 18year-old so they are playing from my estimation the long game here you know you heard Mark Eversley talk many times last night about not wanting to skip steps and staying diligent i’m sure he’ll say similar things to you guys at nine so that’s my read on the situation i mean yeah sure the fact they have some security will help but I my my strong sense it’s not even a gut sense it’s just my strong indications are they would have been taking this process regardless
i’m curious um what’s left for them i mean they they got a second round pick tonight um it’s the 45th pick do they go with a you know a uh one of those uh draft and uh and stash kind of players do they try to is there a position they’re looking for in the second round and and maybe moreover how many trades are out there did they talk then did you think something was going to happen were you surprised nothing did so multiple things on that i mean Mark Eversley talked openly about you know conversations of moving both up and moving down that’s very typical for all teams um I will tell you that um I have some intel on their on their draft board i mean they did like Colin Murray Boils another name um not that shouldn’t be a surprise because we’ve been talking about him and writing about him for weeks um but you know when they real he went nine at Toronto uh so I’m guessing if they had conversations move up he was one of the targets but when they started to see the draft board playing out and realizing SN was going to be there at 12 that probably was added some comfort level or that and or the price was too high to move up um I’d expect a quiet night tonight uh you just do the math if they resign Josh Giddy Javon Carter’s already picked up his player option no SNG signing a guaranteed deal you’re at 14 guaranteed contracts so I would expect them to try to trade out tonight which Mark Eversley uh admitted is a possibility um andor a drafting stash so I’d expect a quiet night and then as far as the future I mean I fully expect him to use as the mid-level exception in free agency to add a 15th player obviously you can go up to 20 contracts in the offseason but ultimately you got to get down to 15 guaranteed for the regular season so um they’ll be active in trade talks you know the names have been out there patrick Williams Nicoolah Vuchich Lonzo Ba can’t predict where that’s going to go as of now but um I’m not going to be surprised if Noah Essen Gay and a you know solid veteran with the mid-level exception are are the offseason moves for the Bulls
how surprised are you by that not necessarily just the Bulls but it was a pretty quiet draft night after we had gone into it thinking maybe you didn’t but I think there was a suggestion that it was going to be some activity around the league and there just wasn’t well I mean you certainly had some big trades leading up to the draft i think more trades are coming um I said before I think in this new CBA the trade market is almost like the new free agency um in some ways so um and look the Bulls are certainly going to be active i mean it takes two sometimes three teams to to make a deal work so uh I’m I’m not saying that’s for sure going to be the offseason path but I’m not going to be surprised if that’s what it is no SNK and a a veteran with the mid level so a lot of time left for the off season there’ll be a lot of rumors etc and we we’ll see where it goes
when will you know if this kid can play i mean it’s going to take a couple years I would imagine given his age given the lack of experience but I I think that you know if he can run the floor and he can help them uh as a rookie I think we’ll see it but we’re also talking about trying to figure out a way to to um to know if there’s development going on yeah and um I mean you watched the way Billy Donovan brought Modis Gazelis along last season right and and uh Modis himself talked about how that was tough for him at first but he ultimately grew to really appreciate and respect that and and it helped him and the way he closes the season should have full stance obviously encouraged um this to me this guy to me seems probably even more of a project than than modest maybe I’m wrong so I don’t like I said before I I I have pretty low expectations for for rookie season but maybe he’ll prove me wrong um I just think there’s so much on his plate as a 18 and a half year old i mean we all have kids i mean it’s like um you know this guy’s younger than my oldest kid and and it’s like you can’t even believe this guy you know you can’t picture your own kid doing something like that it’s a big deal coming overseas and living in another country and learning a new culture and um also trying to play professional basketball they get paid handsomely for it in fact uh I joked with my oldest who just left for his uh summer internship and just finished his freshman year at Georgetown i said “Hey Thomas is making $4.6 $6 million next year what are you doing
wow thanks Dad i mean there’s just there’s a lot there’s a lot for these kids you know so u but I don’t want to minimize it they get paid a handsome wage this is the life they chose but my expectations are pretty low just given all that’s going to be on this kid’s plate next year

On the Mully & Haugh Show, Chicago Sports Network insider K.C. Johnson shared his thoughts on the Bulls’ selection of 18-year-old French forward Noa Essengue with the 12th overall pick in the NBA Draft. What are his strengths and weaknesses? What’s his developmental timeline look like?

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