Free Noa.

[GoBlue72391]

We are trying to win now. No one gets entitlement minutes. Noa was pick to develop for 3 years down the road. Not to be a big rookie contributor.

I know, I'm questioning if he tops out as a decent role player 3-5 years from now then what was the point?

If this was last year, he'd definitely be getting 10-12 minutes a night. I think that Pat's (surprisingly) good play has been the primary roadblock to minutes for him. Maybe the only reason to be happy about Noa's lack of mins is that Pat's playing well. Also, Phillips is pretty good and ahead of him too. At least it's guys who are here for a couple seasons.

I don't think Phillips is pretty good at all. He has incredible athleticism, but he rarely, if ever, uses it. He's probably our least impactful player since Tony Snell.

At least Dalen Terry makes his presence felt when he plays, good or bad. 90% of the time you wouldn't even realize Phillips is on the floor.

[GoBlue72391]

I get he's only 18, but I think it's being slightly overstated. He has some high level overseas professional experience under his belt.

18 is only a year younger than the one-and-dones who come out and contribute in the NBA right away.

Essengue probably will spend the majority of this and next season in the G League, but redshirting him for two years really takes away any value from having a young player on a cheap rookie contract. And he might only be a 9th or 10th man in years 3 and 4.

For an extremely raw guy who doesn't likely project to have star upside, is he really worth all these years and patience? For a guy who will most likely end up as a back end starter or solid bench player? Would it have been smarter to take a guy with similar, if slightly lesser, upside who is more NBA ready? Or explored trades that were established to have been discussed?

These years long projects only really make sense when they have star upside IMO. I feel like this would be a worthy wait for a late 1st or 2nd round pick, but not as much for a lottery pick.

I'm not giving up on him or anything, but I'm not seeing the long-term commitment vs the reward when it's all said and done.

You're basically articulating why he was an end-of-lotto draft pick and not taken higher. He's someone you start to get decent minutes out of in his 3rd and 4th years, with the first two basically being sacrificed for developmental purposes.

That said, I think if he's not in the rotation next year it's a red-flag and I would be worried about his future. I'm fine with him red-shirting this year since our team seems to be competitive and he has a lot of learning he can do off of an NBA court. And I want him to be healthy for the upcoming offseason. But it's unusual to be a zero in year two and still have tantalizing upside as an NBA player.

If he still can't beat out Julian Phillips next year I'll start to assume that he just sucks.

Also, in terms of upside, he has superstar role-player potential. Sort of like a healthy Jonathan Isaac, who would've had a great career if he hadn't gotten injured.

Most really good teams have at least one defensive swiss-army knife who enable lineups that are very hard to play against. Rodman, Draymond, Chet, Caruso, etc. His upside is the defensive chess piece that you can use in almost any scenario, that makes it easy to make the most of your most talented offensive players and maximize lineup potential. It's why OG Anunoby reportedly had some of the highest trade interest in the league when he was with the Raptors and hadn't signed his max contract yet. The comp I like best for him right now is Pacers era Derrick McKey, who was a big minute player when they regularly won 50+ games / year. He was 6'11 and defended 2-5 and was the glue that enabled them to maximize the offensive talents of Rik Smits and Reggie Miller, who were both weak defenders.

He's that type of guy. Not a counting stat maximizer, but a "winning" rotation player on the best teams.

That's a good point. He would definitely be worth the development time if he becomes the type of superstar role player you're talking about.

He just has so much to do to get to that point, but his height, length, athleticism, and defensive IQ are good enough to do it if he rounds out the rest of his game.

We're just generally horrible at developing project players.

[Red Larrivee]

Agree to disagree.

I think coming from the top pro league in Germany and a top 10 pro league in the world is a notable step up from the NCAA. It's not like he was playing in the 3rd tier league of Uzbekistan or something.

The majority of NCAA D1 players aren't even good enough to play for the BBL or similar tier 1 domestic leagues. You could say that the NCAA is more top heavy with top NBA draft picks who become future NBA stars, but that's like 0.5% of the competition, and not every school even plays those guys.

On the whole, the BBL is much tougher than the NCAA. A ton of NCAA players are 6'6" Cs and 6'0" SGs for mid-majors. Those types of players make up the majority of the NCAA.

I don't really think it's much of an argument, but you're entitled to your opinion.

If it was Euroleague, Liga ACB, or something of that caliber I'd agree, because it's a league of players who are well developed and good enough to play in the NBA today. Those 2 leagues in particular are the best outside of the NBA by far. It's why it made no sense when people were disregarding the competition Luka succeeded against at a high level at a young age.

BBL is not that level of competition and Noa didn't put up eye popping production. I do think it's notable that he's playing against grown professionals, but just because that's the case, doesn't mean the talent is better. BBL is a mid tier league. It's not even the best after Euroleague or Liga. P4 teams in the NCAA have more NBA talent.

Noa went high because of age and tools. He was not considered ready to contribute from Day 1. We saw why that was in summer league and preseason. Nothing that's happened so far should seem strange. I'd prefer them being conservative than just tossing him out there to show what they already know about him.

[Michael Jackson]

But that could be the case for any late lotto pick. It’s not like we took him top 5.

We did pass up Asa Newell and the pick with the highest lotto odds in the NBA to be #1 next year (presently slotted in the 1-5 range) in order to give Noa a gap year, so there's that.

Would rather have a similar project in Asa + a way better prospect next year that doesn't require a gap year and adds values on all four year of their rookie deal and in fact has legit superstar potential, but water under the bridge now. Just have to hope for the best with Noa.

Why do you make me sob?

[MikeDC]

So according to RealGM, there were 17 teams in the BBL and over a hundred American players, so on average there are like 6-7 guys who played NCAA ball per team. Given that they're guys that are being imported, it's logical to assume they're pretty good.

So the reasonable assumption is that the BBL features a bunch of guys who were good NCAA players but not athletic enough to play in the league. Just like the real NCAA, except the average player is better, stronger and more experienced.

It's not the Euroleague, but he probably had more relevant experience than Patrick Williams, for example.

[ghostinthepost1]

Read on Twitter

?s=19

With how well we're playing there's very few reasons to play Noa any non-garbage time minutes.

Let him focus on adding weight, improving his shot, and learning how to dribble for the next 5 months and maybe he can get some real burn post all star break.

[League Circles]

Yeah I'm high on Noa for sure but we're dominating without him so he definitely shouldn't be playing.

Although neither should Phillips. Or Terry.

[Chi town]

Yeah I'm high on Noa for sure but we're dominating without him so he definitely shouldn't be playing.

Although neither should Phillips. Or Terry.

We aren’t dominating. We are winning against strong competition.

If we were dominating Noa would be playing in blowouts which what I anticipate after these next 7 games when we than have the easiest schedule in the league.

I def believe he will bring more than JP and DT too. His length alone will get rebounds and deflections and disrupt other teams spacing and offense.

[dougthonus]

Agree to disagree.

I think coming from the top pro league in Germany and a top 10 pro league in the world is a notable step up from the NCAA. It's not like he was playing in the 3rd tier league of Uzbekistan or something.

The majority of NCAA D1 players aren't even good enough to play for the BBL or similar tier 1 domestic leagues. You could say that the NCAA is more top heavy with top NBA draft picks who become future NBA stars, but that's like 0.5% of the competition, and not every school even plays those guys.

On the whole, the BBL is much tougher than the NCAA. A ton of NCAA players are 6'6" Cs and 6'0" SGs for mid-majors. Those types of players make up the majority of the NCAA.

I don't really think it's much of an argument, but you're entitled to your opinion.

Whether the BBL is better or not is kind of irrelevant in a way.

The reality is that the Bulls don't think he's ready to contribute in the NBA despite what he did in the BBL (which is more than what Patrick Williams did in the NCAA as a comparison) and despite whatever the quality of competition of the BBL is.

So if he has this "better" experience, it hasn't translated in the minds of our coaching staff as making him ready to play in the NBA. Same was true of Matas and the G-League (which you can also make the case is viewed as a higher caliber league than the NCAA).

Maybe another way to think of it is that playing in these higher caliber leagues doesn't actually confer much benefit (possibly because of the roles these players have on those teams or some other reason or that it's just really unique to the prospect themselves).

[League Circles]

Agree to disagree.

I think coming from the top pro league in Germany and a top 10 pro league in the world is a notable step up from the NCAA. It's not like he was playing in the 3rd tier league of Uzbekistan or something.

The majority of NCAA D1 players aren't even good enough to play for the BBL or similar tier 1 domestic leagues. You could say that the NCAA is more top heavy with top NBA draft picks who become future NBA stars, but that's like 0.5% of the competition, and not every school even plays those guys.

On the whole, the BBL is much tougher than the NCAA. A ton of NCAA players are 6'6" Cs and 6'0" SGs for mid-majors. Those types of players make up the majority of the NCAA.

I don't really think it's much of an argument, but you're entitled to your opinion.

Whether the BBL is better or not is kind of irrelevant in a way.

The reality is that the Bulls don't think he's ready to contribute in the NBA despite what he did in the BBL (which is more than what Patrick Williams did in the NCAA as a comparison) and despite whatever the quality of competition of the BBL is.

So if he has this "better" experience, it hasn't translated in the minds of our coaching staff as making him ready to play in the NBA. Same was true of Matas and the G-League (which you can also make the case is viewed as a higher caliber league than the NCAA).

Maybe another way to think of it is that playing in these higher caliber leagues doesn't actually confer much benefit (possibly because of the roles these players have on those teams or some other reason or that it's just really unique to the prospect themselves).

IMO it's absolutely plausible that the coaching staff thinks he's more ready to help than Phillips or Terry but plays those guys anyway for these reasons:

1. We have Noa locked up for 4 years and Phillips and Terry are about to expire. For timing reasons, we theoretically need to see what we have in them quickly, whereas Noa we have ample time.
2. We're winning anyway with them playing very little.
3. Matas and Patrick are both playing well. Hell almost everyone is other than Phillips and Terry that Noa could potentially take minutes from. If Smith struggled maybe we'll see Noa get a few minutes at C I suppose before Collins returns.

[HomoSapien]

Obviously it's early, but I am having major buyers remorse here. Given how poorly the Pelicans are doing, I think we would be better off with Newell and that pick. Then we'd be headed in the 2026 draft with potentially three first round picks which just gives us enormous flexibility and trade value. Essengue has to end up being a franchise cornerstone for me to change my mind on this one.

[Brothaman33]

I didn't like the pick...still don't like it, but I've softened on the handling of him.

He is not ready to play in the NBA.

Its either, "We see his potential and once he gets acclimated, we see a good defensive 4-5 who can rim run with our group"

Or

"F*** this kid cannot play"

Im perfectly fine with forgetting about him this year. I hope he plays every minute in the G-League. Vuc, Collins and Jalen are all better and should play before him, regardless of "developmental minutes"

[DuckIII]

Oh. So this probably is him going to their practices where he gets to be The Man and they all push and challenge him since he doesn't get that at regular practices. Also makes sense. All the different types of looks and experiences he can get against live competition are a plus.

So when this story first broke, before we had any information, this was my supposition. Before one of the Knicks' games, when the story had been out for a day or two generally, KC drilled down in the pregame and said it was exactly what I wrote. They wanted him to get reps operating with the ball in his hands, working on pick and roll scenarios, etc., that he would not be getting at the Bulls main practices where he would be largely relegated to off ball work replicating his expected rookie role if he were in a game.

Its logical and given how the Bulls are playing, and given the expected return of Ayo and Coby to increase depth, I hope we continue to do this often with Noa.

I also don't think this scenario at all means they don't think Noa can contribute more now in a limited role than Terry or Phillips. It certainly could mean that. Its just as plausible, and I'd suggest even more plausible, it does not mean that. To me its simply an illustration of priorities, with Noa being trained early in the season consistent with their longer term vision for him. Its a good call.

[DuckIII]

Oh man, this board's impatience with young players is crazy given the evolutions we have seen with many players in recent years. Its just emotion.

Often it takes years. Years. Vs. 7 games in which said player has not yet even played so as to be evaluated at all. Damn. Chill.

[League Circles]

I completely forgot about the ball handling access part of it. That makes it make all the more sense. Although, as long as the Bulls keep winning, even if he looks awesome, they might bring him along very slowly. He's really got to replace some of Smith or Patrick's minutes to get on the court I think. Overtaking Buzelis is unrealistic for now, and he's a totally different player than Vuc, not a real C, not yet anyways, and frankly Phillips was barely getting minutes.

I virtually guarantee that unless they're playing really great, Dalen Terry and Julian Phillips will not see any PT ahead of Noa after the trade deadline this year.

[Jeffster81]

I was fine with the pick and I am ok with the handling of him. He needs repetition and he will not get it in Chicago. Bulls are thinking long term with Noa and I am fine with it.

[HomoSapien]

Oh man, this board's impatience with young players is crazy given the evolutions we have seen with many players in recent years. Its just emotion.

Often it takes years. Years. Vs. 7 games in which said player has not yet even played so as to be evaluated at all. Damn. Chill.

In my defense, this was my stance the moment we heard about the Pelicans trade and isn't really a reaction to Essengue not playing. It's a reaction to NOP being terrible. If we were to learn there was no trade available to us, I would be fully satisfied with the Essengue selection/gamble... but that doesn't seem to be the case. Next year's draft appears to be so deep, that an unprotected NOP feels like a no brainer to me.

[Chi town]

I completely forgot about the ball handling access part of it. That makes it make all the more sense. Although, as long as the Bulls keep winning, even if he looks awesome, they might bring him along very slowly. He's really got to replace some of Smith or Patrick's minutes to get on the court I think. Overtaking Buzelis is unrealistic for now, and he's a totally different player than Vuc, not a real C, not yet anyways, and frankly Phillips was barely getting minutes.

I virtually guarantee that unless they're playing really great, Dalen Terry and Julian Phillips will not see any PT ahead of Noa after the trade deadline this year.

I think it will be sooner than that.

I’d bet big money that Noa could have done more than JP and DT in the mins they’ve been given. His size and length alone make things happen that the other guys just can’t do. His IQ is also way higher than those two as well.

I think it’s smart how they are handling him and I expect we will see returns on it after 20-30 games when Noa is in the rotation and getting even more burn in B2B’s and when he plays well.

I fully believe he will impact games this season much like Buz did as his role increased. With Now it will be his D that impacts games. Also think his 3 ball will better than JP and DT by end of season too.

[Dan Z]

Oh man, this board's impatience with young players is crazy given the evolutions we have seen with many players in recent years. Its just emotion.

Often it takes years. Years. Vs. 7 games in which said player has not yet even played so as to be evaluated at all. Damn. Chill.

In my defense, this was my stance the moment we heard about the Pelicans trade and isn't really a reaction to Essengue not playing. It's a reaction to NOP being terrible. If we were to learn there was no trade available to us, I would be fully satisfied with the Essengue selection/gamble... but that doesn't seem to be the case. Next year's draft appears to be so deep, that an unprotected NOP feels like a no brainer to me.

That's my issue with it too (the New Orleans trade or should I say non trade).

If they're going to keep bouncing Noa from practicing with the G League to the main team then I think they should just let him play in the G League for awhile. I'd be okay with that. He doesn't have to play with the main team right away.