[Gottlieb] Bulls are sending Noa Essengue to the G League team for some reps and playing opportunity
November 1, 2025
[Gottlieb] Bulls are sending Noa Essengue to the G League team for some reps and playing opportunity
21 comments
I’m surprised our first round pick hasn’t seen the court even a minute
Hindsight is obviously 20/20 but with how well the team is playing, it’s kinda too bad we used our lottery pick on a project player lol
I love the Noa Essengue pick from the beginning. I am extremely young and have pro experience. I think more playing time at the nba level and getting both stronger physically and mentally will do wonders.
Edit: he is really young lmfao
Makes sense. He’s a very raw prospect who needs to improve on ball handling and the consistency of his outside shot to get a real chance of playing time. He showed flashes during summer league and preseason but nothing concrete.
Good for him, billy really wants to give phillips a chance (seems like terry about to be out of the league) so unless we do a trade or people get hurt, he will most likely not see the court all year.
He’s only 18 it’s not that big of a deal. It’d be way more concerning if he was 21 already and getting sent down
He’s always been a project. Insanely high upside and if he develops like we think, he’ll be a great piece for us
Makes sense to me
Finally. He needs to get some more experience and was just wasting his time sitting on the bench.
He needs that. Can Terry go too?
This was always the plan with a pick like that, if we have an injury later in the season maybe you try to get him some minutes.
PWill was 18 when he entered the league and its taking him what 6 years to find his groove (hopefully) with this team.
I think he’ll dominate in the g-league and make his way into the rotation sooner than later
It’s where he probably should be right now if he’s gonna get playing time, but I have to be the guy to say, lottery picks that get extended G league time typically don’t turn into stars.
I had this discussion recently so I’ve already dug up a list of every lottery pick since 2010 that played in 5 or more g-league games in their first or second season:
Cole Aldrich, Patrick Patterson, Tristan Thompson, Marcus Morris, Kendall Marshall, Anthony Bennett, TJ Warren, Taurean Prince, Georgios Papagiannis, Jerome Robinson, Romeo Langford, Ziaire Williams, James Bouknight, Josh Primo, Johnny Davis, Ousmane Dieng, Moses Moody, Jarace Walker, Taylor Hendricks and Jett Howard, Tidjane Salaun and Devin Carter.
There’s some decent players in there, but not the greatest company overall. You might think I’m cherrypicking, “why not talk about all first round picks and you can add Siakam, why not talk about all players and you can add VanVleet?”
Difference is lower picks tend to be lower priority development pieces so when they end up in the g-league and show out, it forces their franchises to take notice. Lottery picks who would be higher priority initially but end up in the g-league because there aren’t many NBA development opportunities available for them is a worse sign.
All this to say, Essengue is extremely young even for a rookie, so maybe that fact will help him break the mold, but there’s not a great past precedent for this move.
If he can follow a similar path to Matas it’d be an amazing 1 2 punch from the wings. Just give him time to fill out and get reps. No need to rush him onto the court. Hopefully once we get the ASB he can be called up for games against teams like the Pels or Nets or something where you don’t have to push the starters big minutes.
We should’ve traded our pick to the pelicans. That would’ve been the dream scenario. 5-0 and have a chance for a top pick in next years draft
Basically gonna be the same timeline as Matas.
No surprises there really
Now I have to head out of the city to watch him play.
Good move IMO. I think this is the exact thing we need from the G league. Let these young, raw guys develop and get playing time.
21 comments
I’m surprised our first round pick hasn’t seen the court even a minute
Hindsight is obviously 20/20 but with how well the team is playing, it’s kinda too bad we used our lottery pick on a project player lol
I love the Noa Essengue pick from the beginning. I am extremely young and have pro experience. I think more playing time at the nba level and getting both stronger physically and mentally will do wonders.
Edit: he is really young lmfao
Makes sense. He’s a very raw prospect who needs to improve on ball handling and the consistency of his outside shot to get a real chance of playing time. He showed flashes during summer league and preseason but nothing concrete.
Good for him, billy really wants to give phillips a chance (seems like terry about to be out of the league) so unless we do a trade or people get hurt, he will most likely not see the court all year.
He’s only 18 it’s not that big of a deal. It’d be way more concerning if he was 21 already and getting sent down
He’s always been a project. Insanely high upside and if he develops like we think, he’ll be a great piece for us
Makes sense to me
Finally. He needs to get some more experience and was just wasting his time sitting on the bench.
He needs that. Can Terry go too?
This was always the plan with a pick like that, if we have an injury later in the season maybe you try to get him some minutes.
PWill was 18 when he entered the league and its taking him what 6 years to find his groove (hopefully) with this team.
I think he’ll dominate in the g-league and make his way into the rotation sooner than later
It’s where he probably should be right now if he’s gonna get playing time, but I have to be the guy to say, lottery picks that get extended G league time typically don’t turn into stars.
I had this discussion recently so I’ve already dug up a list of every lottery pick since 2010 that played in 5 or more g-league games in their first or second season:
Cole Aldrich, Patrick Patterson, Tristan Thompson, Marcus Morris, Kendall Marshall, Anthony Bennett, TJ Warren, Taurean Prince, Georgios Papagiannis, Jerome Robinson, Romeo Langford, Ziaire Williams, James Bouknight, Josh Primo, Johnny Davis, Ousmane Dieng, Moses Moody, Jarace Walker, Taylor Hendricks and Jett Howard, Tidjane Salaun and Devin Carter.
There’s some decent players in there, but not the greatest company overall. You might think I’m cherrypicking, “why not talk about all first round picks and you can add Siakam, why not talk about all players and you can add VanVleet?”
Difference is lower picks tend to be lower priority development pieces so when they end up in the g-league and show out, it forces their franchises to take notice. Lottery picks who would be higher priority initially but end up in the g-league because there aren’t many NBA development opportunities available for them is a worse sign.
All this to say, Essengue is extremely young even for a rookie, so maybe that fact will help him break the mold, but there’s not a great past precedent for this move.
If he can follow a similar path to Matas it’d be an amazing 1 2 punch from the wings. Just give him time to fill out and get reps. No need to rush him onto the court. Hopefully once we get the ASB he can be called up for games against teams like the Pels or Nets or something where you don’t have to push the starters big minutes.
We should’ve traded our pick to the pelicans. That would’ve been the dream scenario. 5-0 and have a chance for a top pick in next years draft
Basically gonna be the same timeline as Matas.
No surprises there really
Now I have to head out of the city to watch him play.
Good move IMO. I think this is the exact thing we need from the G league. Let these young, raw guys develop and get playing time.
Billy didn’t like him
Lol