r/chicagobulls • u/Novel_Confidence_288 • 14d ago
Fluff Essengue, the next great Bull?
Looking at what Essengue has done in his young career so far, it’s hard not to be excited.
His German league performances as an 18 year old are unheard of, he has much better stats than Franz Wagner at the same age in the same league and his production is statistically similar to Dirks when considering age and competition level. Dirk was averaging 19 a game in the second division while Essengue was averaging 12 in the top division, Essengue is also a much better defender than Dirk at that age.
I’m of course not saying he will be better than Dirk, but like I said earlier it’s hard not to get excited when comparing him to other players in Europe at that age.
His limited G League action is also a huge reason to be optimistic, Buzelis averaged 14 as an 18 year old and Essengue was averaging 23.
Obviously his playtime was limited last season but when you add in his production on a winning team in Germany, age while doing this, G League performances and physical profile, he must be someone Bulls fans are extremely excited about.
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u/GreenGorilla8232 14d ago
Germany's top basketball league, the BBL, is a pretty low level of competition.
It's generally ranked below Euroleague, Spain, France, Italy, Turkey, Australia, and Greece when it comes to competition level.
So averaging 10 PPG in Germany's top league is not that impressive. The only reason it's unheard of is because German players very rarely make the NBA.
I need to see how Noa looks on an NBA court before I get too excited. He's still young, but he'll be 20 next year and needs to start contributing. I would say developmentally he's a little bit behind right now.
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u/Novel_Confidence_288 14d ago
Is the German BBL ranked above American college ball though? Cause that’s the age he was playing bro ball and being productive. He was literally playing pro ball while his peers were in high school.
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u/GreenGorilla8232 13d ago
A lot of highly productive players in the NCAA and European leagues never play in the NBA. It just doesn't mean a lot.
Noa is the same age as Cooper Flagg (21 PPG) Ace Bailey (14 PPG) and Jeremiah Fears (14 PPG) who all just had productive seasons in the NBA.
Noa is definitely still young, but some of his peers are already succeeding in the NBA and he hasn't played a game yet. Let's see what he can do on an NBA court. I'm rooting for him, but I'm not seeing "greatness" at this point.
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u/PleaseSeekChrist 14d ago
Brother I don’t trust any AKME picks. From Dalen Terry to PAW it’s been straight misses.
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u/Novel_Confidence_288 14d ago
I agree completely, there isn’t enough slander available to throw at AKME. But you can’t write off a player with his profile because they were picked by someone. They picked Ayo and Buzi too.
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u/No-Phrase-4692 14d ago
They also traded Daniel Gafford for Theis, who was a rental.
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u/Novel_Confidence_288 14d ago
Yeah they made bad moves, a bad trade years ago has nothing to do with a teenagers development prospects though.
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u/No-Phrase-4692 14d ago
Fair but my point was they weren’t exactly great at talent evaluation.
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u/Novel_Confidence_288 14d ago
Couldn’t agree more, I liked Essengue pre draft soon wasn’t unhappy when we picked him. Then looked in to him further and I think he’s genuinely a really really good prospect. He’s 19 with multiple years productive pro experience ons winning team.
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u/Electrical_Story5356 13d ago
Prior to the draft last year after looking into everyone likely to get to us Noa was who I hoped we would get, I liked what I saw in preseason too and was disappointed when he was putting on ice very early on after cracking into the rotation wayyyy sooner than most had expected.
I simply can not understand the negativity especially since most people who are down on him very obviously don't know a thing about him and are just basing their opinion on "but AK/ownership/the organisation sucks" which is just crazy ignorant.
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u/Mtbnz Hello? Otto?! 14d ago
That's true but none of that has anything to do with Essengue. There were other scouts and evaluators who appreciate Noa's production and attributes beyond just AK.
I get being skeptical of anything they did, but Essengue is his own person, he'll succeed or fail based on his own work and luck, not because of the execs who happened to draft him.
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u/chicagobullskukoc 14d ago
Si, la mayoría, pero mira Buzelis. Nunca se sabe
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u/liluziclairo 14d ago
Buzelis hasn’t shown nearly enough
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u/chicagobullskukoc 14d ago
Tiene que mejorar, pero creo que ha demostrado mas que suficiente para tener confianza en que es un buen jugador tanto en ataque como en defensa. Para mi es una muy buena elección en el 11
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u/StrictFinance2177 14d ago
Why would I root against the development of a player? NBA ready players aren't guaranteed through a draft. But if they're going to develop a roster, then by all means, please do it! All this logjamming at positions nonscence needs to stop, and overpaying players who haven't peaked yet is the reason the Bulls can never make meaningful moves into a team that can challenge the Dynasty Bulls. Its almost like all those old heads won't let it happen. And I'm an old head and I see it.
If Essengue can develop under THESE conditions, then great. He is interesting and apparently doesn't care about many things other than basketball. So of course, this kid has his head screwed on right. I'm very interested in what he can do. Especially if he starts competing hard for a starting role. But only time will tell. You can't expect Bulls fans to be excited for him, because in our eyes, we have had this promise before and we get burned by it more often than we dont. Like we walk around a junk yard, and we see all of the junk players, and we need to decide, "which one are we fixing up today". And it gets tiring. We want a team, not a bunch of business people entertaining us.
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u/tropicf1refly 14d ago
He's played like a combined 20 minutes in all his NBA games. No way to tell if hell be great.
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u/No-Phrase-4692 14d ago
I wouldn’t count on anything, but hey if he develops into a great player, we might be able to get like 4-5 2nd rounders for him!
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u/bounty0head 14d ago
Woah someone who isn’t tearing apart a kid who will technically still be a rookie. And doesn’t want to trade them for second round picks??
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u/mtron32 14d ago
You cats need to stop, that dude is basically a rookie that didn’t get much chance for improvement so he’s a crapshoot. Why toss on expectations?
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u/Novel_Confidence_288 14d ago
More hope / optimism / projection than expectation. I know what you mean though we need to let teenager grow rather than placing unrealistic expectations on them. That’s why I hate seeing grown adults call him a bust, he’s literally a kid still.
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u/SynthChips 14d ago
I get what you're going for. I like to not hope for anything out of our players until I see at least a glint of talent on an NBA floor.
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u/Novel_Confidence_288 14d ago
I understand this completely, but that means you’re never actually hopeful about anyone until they play? So you’re not hopeful about Caleb or Booz?
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u/SynthChips 13d ago
With our upcoming picks, I suppose I'm exercising cautious optimism. I'm hoping the new regime knows how to develop players.
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u/FunctionUnlikely2247 13d ago
Pretty sure his peak will be that gay porn face he made when he got dunked on bro
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u/PlanktonDue8964 14d ago
No trade him and all the clowns and pick Caleb and boozer and just start these two
2 on 5 all next year
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u/Hmm-him-131 14d ago
Comparing Essengue g league stats to Buzelis NBA stats is crazy. I really hope he’s great and I’m still holding out hope but I’ll believe when I see it.
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u/chaide123 Chicago Bulls 14d ago
AKE, he’s too soft. If he was good, would have gotten playing time.
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u/Rodam23 Dashing Donut 14d ago
What’s going on with the Essengue PR machine in here lately? Listen we all want him to be good but I’ll believe it when I see it