Noa Essengue Scouting Report
Physically imposing ball handlers with skills that make them able to play in multiple roles are what NBA teams look for. But what else is there to like with Essengue? Here's all you need to know.
As a plus-sized ball handler, Essengue’s path to the NBA comes at the right moment. In a European game centered around the idea of fundamentals and substance over flash and athletic tools, Essengue is in a lucky position. Ratiopharm Ulm is one of Europe's best youth development clubs due to their ability to utilize physical tools while keeping a traditional fundamental-based type of development.
Essengue won Most Valuable Player at the Adidas Next Generation Tournament qualifying tournament in Dubai while putting NBA scouts on notice with his performance at Basketball Without Borders, both in the first half of 2024. While playing over 1,000 minutes last year, Essengue has had 80+ of them at the highest level—a number likely to improve this upcoming season.
Physical Profile
At 6’10”, Essengue has a long and wiry frame. At 194 pounds, there is enough room to continue to fill his frame in the future. He has an average wingspan. There is no official measurement available, but by the eye test, it should be around three, maybe four inches.
Essengue has fluid hips and offers good mobility. He’s twitchy, and with his developing footwork he will likely guard multiple positions at the NBA level. The burst and lateral quickness are good, adding value to his wing-based game. His body control is developing, mainly a reason for a lack of good touch around the rim. His verticality is something to hang his hat on as a scorer at the next level.
Due to his size, Essengue is used as a help-side defender, something he can thrive on at the next level. Despite a lack of physicality against stronger and older players, his toughness is a good compensator for the above-mentioned.
Offense
With decent handles, Essengue is often caught with tunnel vision when he’s attacking the rim. Considering his role, it’s likely that closeout attacks will be a large chunk of his self-created interior looks. His decision-making is the first area of development. Essengue forces his drives to the rim often rather than playing within the flow of the offense, with the last play below being a good example.
His dedication to the game and will to win often gets the best of him. As per InStat, Essengue is a 50% rim-finisher in 116 games in the last three seasons. The sample size consists of every level he has played at. That’s a below-average number. An important nuance here is a non-existing defensive three-second rule. That makes it harder to find clean looks at the rim due to teams often placing their five as a de facto rim protector playing underneath the basket.
Therefore, the flashes are the leading factor, rather than taking the outcome at face value. Essengue has all the tools to be a prolific scorer at the next level. With improving offensive creativity, Essengue is experimenting with using his handles to create separation, rather than straight-line drives. In the first play below, Essengue sells the attack via the right with how his pivot foot is placed but instead powers himself to the rim via the middle.
Despite the miss in the second play, his instinct to punish the defense is what NBA teams are looking for. That type of aggressive play will be rewarding in the future when his decision-making improves. The athletic tools as shown in the putback attempts are the flashes that will intrigue NBA decision-makers.
Essengue using his pivot foot to bring his defender out of balance in the third play shows that he’s making the right reads. Pivoting right while attacking left, followed up by using his size and strength advantage is what Essengue does well here. Therefore, the outcome of the shot is less relevant. Granted, the finish at the rim was one he had to convert. Considering the process to get there, improvements in the future will heavily rely on his physical development.
Body control and balance are what Essengue struggled with this past season. A large part of it is related to his continuously changing body. For a 17-year-old, his frame will catch up later on, making the leading argument to put less value on the outcome and production, and more value on the flashes and process.
At 25.4% on almost three attempts per game, Essengue is a developing three-point shooter. He’s quick in setting his feet but takes too much time to power up for his shot. Generally, he’s keeping the ball at the level of his waist while bending his knees too far to power up. He’s strong enough to keep the ball high. A positive is that his shooting mechanics are consistent, making it easier for NBA decision-makers to consider changing it in the future.
What immediately stood out was the ability to keep the ball high already, as shown in the third play below. The ‘no-dip’ three with the hand in his face will intrigue NBA scouts due to the context of a faster-paced NBA game with harder closeouts. Consistency as a shooter starts by converting open threes at a high clip. In Essengue’s case, he looks more confident in his abilities when shooting contested threes.
At 58.7% free-throw shooting, that’s a below-average number not helping Essengue’s case. However, contextualizing those numbers is vital for NBA scouts. A large chunk of it is due to a lack of self-confidence when shooting open threes. It’s almost as if Essengue is afraid to miss and feels obligated to hit on every open three-point shot. That can be seen with Essengue forcing his shot, by pushing it more rather than a smooth release.
That translates to the free-throw lane, as a cold spell negatively impacts Essengue. Therefore, helping him develop mentally in that regard is what an NBA decision-maker should do, rather than taking the production at face value.
For the NBA, inverted pick-and-rolls will be a more valuable play type in the upcoming years. That’s a natural result of the league getting bigger while focusing on ball handlers and decision-makers in every position. Therefore, the ability to serve as a screener and self-creating scorer is a must for Essengue to succeed. In the first two plays, we see Essengue showing his aggressiveness and quick decision-making when bringing the ball up the court.
His game is built for the faster-paced. One of Essengue’s good habits is that he’s not wasting time. Usually, it is the other way around, where prospects have to learn how to play faster. In Essengue’s case, Ulm’s excellent development and clear style of play helped him to take advantage of that and create the type of scoring habits an NBA decision-maker looks for.
As mentioned earlier, Essengue does force his finishes too often, as shown in the first play below. Creating paint touches and advantages off the dribble is what he’s more than capable of. However, his passing out of these advantages to pass up a good look for a great look is the area of focus for him in the 2024-25 season.
In the third and fourth play below, Essengue serves as the roll man out of the ball screen. With his mobility being an advantage, Essengue doesn’t have to always put hard screens, and roll after the ball handler gets the switch. He’s capable of using ghost screens as well, as shown in the third play. His leverage to generate paint touches is what teams are forced to defend against, making them more vulnerable in answering Essengue’s versatility as a screener.
The fourth play is the most crucial one in seeing the flashes that translate to success. As a screener, Essengue has great footwork where he’s using his pivot foot both to impact his opponent’s screen navigation (forcing them to move around Essengue rather than fight through) and use eye manipulation to both distract the covering big man ready to switch while determining the cutting lane. This makes it clear that Essengue has experience as a roll man via pick-and-roll sets in earlier years.
Despite the lack of finishing on these plays, the process itself makes too much sense and gives an NBA decision-maker a good idea of how to materialize Essengue’s ability as an option in pick-and-roll sets.
Essengue is a natural passer. While he’s focused on scoring out of advantage creations more often than not, it doesn’t take away his potential as a playmaker in the future. At 67 assists to 90 turnovers this past season, the numbers don’t tell the whole story. Despite a smaller sample size as a creator for others, Essengue shows consistency in making good reads, while showing decent execution.
His basketball IQ makes the game easier for Essengue, outside of his advantage to see over defenses. In the first play below, he uses a jab step to the left to drag the defense with him that was crowding the paint. This opened a better passing angle for the skip pass to the wide-open shooter in the far-right corner. Those are the details NBA decision-makers look for when determining long-term potential as a playmaker.
Angles continue to be the keyword as Essengue prepares for a face-up scoring opportunity, again using jab steps to keep the help defense’s focus on him. With quick execution and decision-making being one of his strengths, it’s refreshing to see a 17-year-old execute reads as quickly as he did in this play. At the moment he rises for the drive, he sees the open corner and delivers another skip pass.
As a ball mover and connective passer, Essengue can be used in the high post. He’s good at making quick decisions out of entry passes, with him feeding the cutter through the middle with the bounce pass in the third play below. He doesn’t have to execute high-level reads to be effective as a playmaker. Another good habit of his is that Essengue can serve as a ‘grab-and-go’ threat due to his size and rebounding. His passing the ball ahead in transition, as shown in the last possession below, is another value riser that will help him develop as a passer in the long run.
Defense
Essengue will mostly be asked to serve as a pick-and-roll defender. In a trend where switches can lead to matchup issues, his size, footwork, and quickness will help coaches weapon themselves in their defensive schemes. That’s because Essengue can guard the ball handler and the screening big men—when continuing to get stronger and fill his frame in the next few years.
However, to get to a level where he can act as a primary defender in pick-and-roll sets, Essengue has areas to clean up. In the first play below, the ball handler initiates the switch, where Essengue acts quickly and immediately goes over the screen. However, he steps out too far, leading to him having to adjust to the ball handler and trying to cover the strong side, rather than position himself in a way where the ball handler is forced to beat Essengue instead.
He’s also too modest when initiating contact. While averaging 2.2 personal fouls in 20 minutes per game, Essengue should be more physical to leverage his strength advantage against smaller players. Good defenders are tone-setters to where scorers have to adjust to them. In Essengue’s case, his modest stance leads to the contrary. The third play is a good example where Essengue is giving the scorer control over the possession, responding to him rather than setting the tone and forcing his opponent to beat him off the dribble.
In the second play, Essengue lacks the quickness to respond to the stepback before the jumper and surprisingly doesn’t put in the effort to contest the shot. That’s disappointing due to his physicality led to the ball handler picking up its dribble, thus lessening the options from there. In terms of executing his defensive plays, that’s something NBA decision-makers must pay more attention to this upcoming season.
In the last possession, Essengue is more dialed in and forces his opponent to attack him off the dribble. His positioning allows him to use his length to contest and potential pull-up while controlling the driving lane. That forced the ball handler to a tough jumper or keep the ball moving. That’s the style of pick-and-roll defense Essengue has to focus on playing more in his minutes on the first team.
While Essengue plays with toughness on the offensive side of the ball, he often lacks the same intensity as a defender. Due to his size at 6’10”, Essengue is often asked to guard the post. While the NBA has less focus on post-up scoring, that part of the evaluation tells that he needs to get stronger in the upcoming years to match NBA physicality from forwards and has to up his aggressiveness to gain control over who’s the adjusting factor in a possession. As of now, it’s Essengue adjusting to the scorer more often than not.
In the first play below, Essengue makes the interior scorer work hard for the ground before the entry pass. His physicality forces the opponent to search for a different scoring angle, relocating to the low post. Despite the make, that’s good intensity, upping the work rate for his opponents to get points on Essengue. That should be his mindset moving forward. We see the same in the second play below, where Essengue uses his length very well to contest his opponent who was fading away before the jumper.
In the third possession below, we see Essengue bite on the fake before the opponent sliding in for the finish. He picks up a good foul, making him earn two points from the line. Overall, Essengue shows good decision-making against fakes and jab steps, where he keeps his composure and balance after the opponent initiates contact before the finish. However, playing intensive defense earlier in the possession is what he needs to work on. In the fourth play below, Essengue gives up ground until the rim in isolation not because he’s physically overmatched, but purely due to the mindset of adjusting to the opponent, rather than forcing them to beat him.
Essengue is an excellent closeout defender. He understands the concept of angles very well and does a good job of keeping opponents between 180 and 270 degrees at all times. In the process of closing out, he does well to control the opponent’s drive by using his pivot foot as a weapon. He has a good last step and is barely caught closing out too hard to the point where he gets burned due to a lack of foot control on his last steps.
His defensive feel for the game and decision-making is what forms the good basketball IQ on that end. He reads to his opponent and floor well, with the first play below being an example. The opponent steps out of bounds, but in the process, Essengue uses his left foot twice to pivot to the baseline, leading to the ball handler being forced in one direction where Essengue covers the strong side very well.
Another positive is that Essengue uses his length and quickness very well. He’s late to close out on the second play due to colliding with a teammate during the process. However, he uses his defensive footwork well in pivoting naturally throughout the process, making the last step work to his advantage. That made it easier to keep up with the scorer laterally to toughen the finish at the rim by using his size and length to close the scoring angle.
In the third play, Essengue is eventually beaten followed up by an open driving lane to the basket. However, he does well to maintain his balance at the moment the ball handler stops the dribble at the elbow. His positioning was between 90 and 180 degrees of the ball handler, leading to him getting burned on the second drive. Therefore, maintaining that 180 degrees in positioning while closing out is something Essengue needs to work on improving. His current ability to close out is at the top of his peers and potentially a difference-maker for him on the NBA level. In the fourth play, his footwork and eventual shot contest is a good example of how in control Essengue is when closing out to the perimeter.
The principle of his closeouts remains the same when defending against spot-up shooters. Essengue is in control more often than not and uses his physical tools very well. His verticality, size, and length on top of his good lateral quickness make it easy for Essengue to impact shooters on the perimeter. The third possession below is an example of how his physical tools lead to advantages. However, there are areas to clean up.
He’s caught ball-watching or having two feet in the paint more often than not. The first play below is a good example. While he’s fully focused on the dribble penetration, Essengue was late to close out to the shooter. Despite still heavily impacting the shot, he had to work harder to win back the ground given up after ball-watching against the dribble drive.
His physical advantage pops immediately. Therefore, when improving his positioning and focus on an off-ball defender, his impact on the defensive end against spot-up shooters will be another value riser of his profile.
Another area of development is Essengue is often watching the outcome of a play, rather than immediately going to box-out mode or already anticipating a potential transition play. The second possession below is a good example.
NBA Draft Projection
For an NBA decision-maker, here are the above-mentioned areas summarized:
Strengths
Consistent shooter in terms of motion and mechanics. Has shown the ability to keep the ball high on catch-and-shoot attempts. That can make him an effective shooter off the catch in a faster-paced NBA game.
Plays tough, is aggressive, and looks to execute reads quickly. His game is built for a faster NBA game. In his archetype as a plus-sized wing, that’s what will lead to a higher draft value
Essengue uses his footwork well to impact the defense. Combined with his good passing, he can be an all-around wing in his prime, impacting the game with his production.
Areas of development
Forces his finishes more often than not. Essengue needs to work on his composure when scoring, always keeping the extra pass in mind.
Lacks confidence and is more vulnerable to cold spells getting into his head. This is shown in his below-average free-throw shooting and less confidence in shooting open threes rather than contested ones.
Overhelps too much on defense, leading to having two feet in the paint, thus having to work harder to close out on the lost ground. Positioning as an off-ball defender is an area of focus for NBA decision-makers to develop.
Based on long-term potential, the strengths mentioned above and areas of development alongside the details in this scouting report, I project Noa Essengue to be a lock for the top ten in the 2025 NBA Draft.
Depending on the level of production while showing improvement in major areas, he has a clear path to enter the top five on draft night. His future trajectory as a high-end starter is the value NBA teams are getting by paying a high price in a loaded draft class.
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