NBA Draft

With Uncertainty After the Top Two Picks, Noa Essengue Is Rising Appropriately

French Forward Noa Essengue has quietly emerged as arguably the strongest international prospect in this class, and is making a case to move from a late-lottery selection to much earlier, and maybe even the top-five. He belongs in those conversations.
Andrew Bernucca|
FIBA.com

If you're not the Dallas Mavericks or San Antonio Spurs, there's probably a healthy amount of debate amongst fans and the members of the media who cover your team about who they should take with their draft pick. Ace Bailey, Tre Johnson, VJ Edgecombe, and Derik Queen have all been floated as possibilities after Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper are likely off the board. With growing uncertainty surrounding picks three and later in this draft, there's plenty of space for prospects to climb up boards, and one player who appears to be doing so is French Forward Noa Essengue.

Essengue is arguably the most intriguing prospect in this draft class. He's the second-youngest player, only three days older than Flagg, and is already having a highly productive professional season with German club Ratiopharm Ulm, where he's averaging 10.1 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 1.4 steals per game on 48/24/71 shooting splits. He's a jack-of-all-trades archetype on both ends of the floor.

He pops the most on defense. Standing at 6-foot-10 with a 6-foot-11 wingspan and 9-foot-3 standing reach, Essengue often looks like he can guard the entire court on his own. He's got deceptive strength for his wiry frame, and absurd anticipation skills that allow him to wreak havoc like few others do overseas on the defensive end. He's comfortable guarding any position or taking on any assignment.

Essengue has blossomed offensively this season. In limited run at the senior level with Ulm last season, he primarily converted easy finishes off cuts and took the occasional catch and shoot spot up three. This season, he's been used as a screener more and come off more screens, thriving at the latter and in the 92nd percentile for efficiency per Synergy Sports. He's also in the 93rd percentile in transition, and the majority of his attempts have still come from spot-ups.

Where he has seen the most growth is movement scoring - off screens and relocating for open shots - as well as putting the ball on the floor. His growth attacking closeouts and creating offensive advantages with only a couple of dribbles has been exponential this season. The three point accuracy is below where you would want it to be, but the form looks good and his free throw shooting gives reason to believe this will improve in time.

And lastly, Essengue's 0.8 free-throw rate, which is more than double teammate Ben Saraf's 0.3, is a strong indicator of his offensive game being more advanced than the numbers say on the surface. Getting to the line with that amount of regularity shows he consistently creates advantages, and poses a challenge defenders cannot answer without fouling. It has drawn him comparisons to Pascal Siakam, and that level of upside looks more possible with every game of experience Essengue gets under his belt. His combination of age, upside, skill, and athleticism should let any team feel comfortable taking a swing on him anywhere outside of the top two picks.

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Andrew Bernucca
ANDREW BERNUCCA

Andrew has covered professional basketball overseas for the better part of six years. He has written scouting reports, profile pieces, news briefs, and more. He has also covered and writen about the NBA as well during his time as a journalist.

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