By Avi Tyagi
The 18-year-old Frenchman, playing his trade at Ratiopharm, provides a compelling elevator pitch. A 6-10 power forward who might still be growing, Noa Essengue is an unstoppable force in transition, with enough skill to play 4 on 3 as a roller, and the defensive upside to be a proper switch 4 at some point in the league. It’s wonderful. Few players in draft history have ever had a .80 free-throw rate at 18 years old. He’s speedy down the track, decently explosive as a leaper, and has better side-to-side agility than anyone his age in this class. Opponents can’t help but foul him. He’s a member of the baby Giannis club, a list of modern 4s who are unstoppable attacking in space but still capable of seeing the floor well enough to actually create some offense for others.
Not a shooter or a ball handler yet. If he’s not attacking the paint, he can’t really create any shots. He has the right idea with interior passes or pushing tempo, but in half-court, it’s asking a lot for him to be an anticipatory passer when he can’t even create windows yet with his handle. He can find corner shooters capably, and it wouldn’t surprise me if a development of his handle unlocked further passing nuance. Teams can still safely ignore him from 3, but it doesn’t have to be that way. He shot well in the combine shooting drills he had to make up for due to the new CBA stipulations. There’s a reason he comes off the bench for Ratiopharm right now, but in a couple of years, perhaps skill development could elevate him to new heights. Fine as a shot-blocker but nothing special. Don’t anticipate him ever becoming a 5, even if he fills his frame. He has a leaner, lankier body type that will likely struggle against the best bigs in the league on the glass, and you wouldn’t want him as a team’s primary shot blocker. It would minimize his strengths anyway. He has a nose for the ball and loves to hustle to create deflections or steals. Sometimes, that results in over-eagerness and fouling at the moment, but it may improve with time. Reminds me a lot of Aaron Gordon, but there are some key differences. Notably, Gordon was far bulkier and stronger at this age and had a well-established bag to pair with the dunk contest athleticism. Gordon was also a far worse shooter at this age and needed more than 10 years to bring the shot up to par. Essengue’s working with a better starting point. Derrick Jones Jr. might be a reasonable median outcome. The upside is probably closer to a sub-all-star version of the baby Giannis archetype. There’s a chance he ends up just remaining a solid bench contributor for a while because there are too many important skills that require development all at once, and he settles into a Rondae Hollis-Jefferson type role. The size and speed provide more leeway than RHJ had, and he glides to the rim better. I loved Bilal Coulibaly in the draft early on after his big debut with Mets 92 from the academy and I see Essengue’s defensive impact early on as potentially comparable, with a higher offensive upside and more immediate value in a league that prioritizes having bigs or big forwards cut and slip into space for easy buckets.
