What Makes Noa Essengue Special?

Through two games, Noa Essengue is thriving with Ratiopharm Ulm. He is unleashed, and is given the freedom to do what he does best: use his athleticism, length, frame, and energy to wreak havoc on both sides of the ball. The French forward is thriving.

FIBA.com

Think about what made Alex Sarr appealing as a prospect last summer. His size, length, and athleticism paired with his overall quality defensive instincts for his age. The term we heard a lot from people who were enthusiastic about him was covering ground.

It is a top-skill NBA teams desire on the defensive end - being able to stunt one pass away and recover for a closeout, getting blown by and being able to recover and force a tough shot at the rim, transitioning from the weak side to offer rim protection against strong side drives, and more one-man defensive rotations are the name of the game. Sarr can do them, the question is how much he wants to do them. 

You know who else can do them? French forward and 2025 NBA Draft prospect Noa Essengue. He also wants to play this role, unlike the questions that linger over Sarr’s long-term commitment to fulfilling the role he’s best suited to. 

Playing for German club Ratiopharm Ulm, Essengue has stepped into the bench forward role vacated by fellow Frenchmen Pacome Dadiet. He’s a ball of chaos, and his presence is felt as soon as he checks into the game for better or worse. He’s constantly active on both sides of the ball. On defense, he’s flying into passing lanes, shuffling to help on drives and staying in position to contest a shooter, ready to offer rim protection support, and crashing the glass hard. 

On offense, he is screening, cutting, getting into position for handoffs, on the hunt for open space, and of course, crashing the glass hard there too. Essengue’s game is a bit raw overall, especially as a finisher, but the athleticism and skill set paired with a mentality that seems to be perfectly in sync with what he’s capable of seems like a match made in heaven. By the way, he’s still only 17. He’ll turn 19 in December of 2025. There’s a lot of upside to get excited about here. 

The defensive upside with Essengue feels like it might be limitless. He measured at 6-foot-10 with shoes, a 6-foot-11 wingspan, and a 9-foot-3 standing reach at Basketball without Borders in early 2024. He has center size and length, and great leaping ability, but with his wiry sub-200-pound frame he moves like a wing and has great recovery speed too. He may not be able to bang down low with some of the bruising bigs of the NBA, but he can do anything and everything else on the defensive end and has showcased that in just two games with Ulm already this season. 

The offensive side of the ball is where he’s more raw. The handle is very loose, and he’s not a self-creator by any stretch. He’s also never shot the three with any reliable consistency. Currently, Essengue makes up for the lack of refinement in his game by leaning into his skillset. He screens, using his wide frame to make it difficult for opponents to get around him. He’s always looking for opportunities to cut and get into handoff action as well. Paired with fellow 2025 NBA Draft prospect Ben Saraf, he’s got a role to play and he thrives in it. 

Essengue looks like a willing shooter, and like he’s trusted to be a willing shooter too. In Ulm’s overtime EuroCup victory over Sopot, it was Essengue who took over in the added frame. He scored six points and grabbed three rebounds, setting the table for Warriors stash Justinian Jessup to win the game with a three in the final seconds. 

In every draft there are players like Essengue, heck many of them are French. Sarr, Zacharie Risacher, Pacome Dadiet, Bilal Coulibaly, and Sekou Doumbouya to name a few. All likely have reliable floors with their defensive versatility, but their ability to stay on an NBA floor is always determined by spot-up shooting, and adding even more to their offensive game is how they can potentially become NBA starters. Believe it or not, while it’s only two games, Essengue looks to be as good a bet as any of them.

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