Chicago Bulls team president Arturas Karnisovas has revealed that he doesn’t have “high expectations” for his rookie lottery pick Noa Essengue in 2025-26.
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The 18-year-old Frenchman is the youngest player in the 2025 draft not named Cooper Flagg, the Dallas Mavericks’ top pick out of Duke. Unlike Flagg, however, the No. 12 pick this summer is expected to be more of a long-term, developmental project at the NBA level.
Essengue is already incredibly athletic, and boasts exciting physical gifts. In three Summer League clashes with the Bulls this past July, the 6-foot-10 forward averaged 12.7 points on .419/.267/.615 shooting splits, plus 5.3 boards, 1.3 swipes, 0.7 rejections and 0.7 dimes per.
Bulls decision makers preaching patience with Noa Essengue
Karnisovas got honest about Essengue’s growth this season, Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times writes.
“We’re not going to put high expectations on what’s going to happen,” Karnisovas said. “We’re just going to see how [Essengue] does the rest of training camp and how he does in the preseason. We’ll make those decisions then.”
To that end, Bulls head coach Billy Donovan reflected on Essengue’s first week of training camp for Chicago.
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“There’s processes [rookies] go through that you have to help them with other than ballhandling, passing, shooting,” Donovan said.
Essengue has room to build out his physicality, too.
“He’s going to have to get better with his strength; he’s going to have to get better guarding the ball one-on-one,” Donovan said. “I think as young as Essengue is, this is going to be a process for him.”
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