Noa Essengue: the best international prospect in the 2025 NBA draft class?
After winning MVP at the Adidas Next Generation Tournament in Dubai, it is time to consider where Noa Essengue falls in the 2025 NBA draft class.
The portion of the 2024 draft cycle where games are actively being played is coming to a close. College basketball’s season is over, G-League Ignite’s final season is over and several international leagues, including the NBL, have finished their postseason.
However, at the same time, the 2025 cycle is just starting to heat up. The McDonald’s All-American Game has just closed and Summer circuits are starting to be played including the Adidas Next Generation Tournament (ANGT) that just closed a handful of weeks ago.
The MVP of that tournament was Ratiopharm Ulm forward Noa Essengue, who led his team to a 3-1 record averaging 20.0 points per game (56.9% true shooting), 10.8 rebounds per game, and 2.5 steals per game and 2.3 blocks per game.
Essengue is a simple player to comprehend, but a nonetheless mind-blowing talent at times. The 17-year-old forward is 6’9” and 194 pounds, with long arms and heaps of athletic ability.
In his time with Ulm, both on their U18 and main rosters, he’s played a variety of roles due to his versatility his athleticism allows, as well as some clear guard skills he’s worked on refining throughout the year.
At his simplest, he can be a rim runner who skies for lobs and attacks out of the short roll, occasionally popping for a three or playing at the top of the key in a delay where he can run an inverted pick-and-roll, hunt a shot or work through handoffs.
Essengue’s athleticism allows him to play these types of roles, and against younger competition he’s looked like a force around the rim, finishing at 73.3% on 30 attempts at the rim during the ANGT (nine of which were dunks).
These attempts came in a great variety, with a good amount coming either in transition or off putbacks — a testament to Essengue’s hustle both to crash the offensive glass and be the first player out — but the half-court attempts, especially the ones that go, are explosive.
Essengue’s speed and footwork make him a dangerous downhill attacker when he refines his moves. He can hit his defenders with a quick euro-step or step-through, throw a jab or a spin move in the mid-post or pull a Giannis-esque two-step straight to the rim.
Outside of the paint is where it starts to get a little more contentious for Essengue. In the ANGT he took zero floaters and just four runners, all of which were generally just a shot in a defender’s space trying to draw a foul.
The jumper isn’t something Essengue’s figured out yet, but the flashes are there. Essengue took 13 threes in the tournament (3.3 attempts per game) and while he only made three of them, there is a lot to like.
Essengue’s mechanics are fine on the surface, but his indicators were lacking in pretty much every sense in the tournament. He’s never been a particularly great three-point shooter in terms of volume or percentage, and percentage-wise it holds at the free-throw line.
Essengue shot just 43.2% on 44 free-throw attempts (11.0 attempts per game). There is a solid foundation within the carnage he brings to the charity stripe, but a lot of the misses are based on an unnecessary reliance on the upper body.
While he does a good job of bringing the ball down as he bends his knees, coming back up with it as he rises into his set point, there is a noticeable millisecond pause at the top that practically nullifies any kind of energy transfer and leads to Essengue shooting a stronger ball as shown below.
From three, there’s one thing to like, and it is the flashes of versatility. He’s at his most comfortable pulling up at the top of the key off the catch in pick-and-pop and transition situations, but there’s the occasional dribble pull-up that draws eyes at his size, regardless of make or miss.
There are generally two paths players like Essengue take as shooters, and it largely has to do with fit and position:
More threes: If Essengue follows this path, it is likely because he’s flourished, and taken on a more on-ball role. The percentage may not be the best, but he’s comfortable spacing and attacking, but will occasionally hunt his shot from the perimeter. The teams that are going to mold Essengue into this see him as more of a wing than a forward and will push him to develop the borders of his game rather than focusing on the parts that fill the gaps.
Fewer threes: Essengue projects as someone who’s going to be an elite play-finisher. His athleticism and quickness give him an incredible ceiling as a lob threat, roll man and clean-up guy on the offensive glass. Funneling him into this role would do wonders for his efficiency, and likely overall productivity, early on and the teams that draft him with this vision will likely limit his opportunities to take threes, focusing on what he can do to open up the floor with his athleticism around the rim.
Regardless though, nobody yet knows what direction Essengue will take so you have to take what is shown. There is a lot of fun when you just take the attempts without the results too, because ultimately Essengue is fun to watch.
Essengue is an interesting scoring prospect. In a way, a lot of his key traits, even down to his frame and athletic profile are reminiscent of someone like Giannis Antetokounmpo during his first few seasons in the NBA.
However, Antetokounmpo was a bit more flexible positionally early on. While it’s pretty clear that Essengue is destined to play a lot of forward and some small-ball five at the next level, Antetokounmpo spent his first three seasons at three different positions: small forward, shooting guard and even point guard.
The difference between 18-year-old Antetokounmpo and 17-year-old Essengue is the playmaking. Antetokounmpo has almost always been able to unlock his teammates through his scoring capabilities. He handles it well and has always been able to get downhill at will, and at his size that draws attention; all Antetokounmpo has to do is make the pass.
While Essengue has flashed playmaking prowess, it has yet to blend with his ability to create for himself or finish plays. It is a bit surprising and maybe even impressive to point out that Essengue’s lowest of his five major stat averages (points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks) was his 2.0 assists per game and that’s because while modest, he still shows many flashes of being able to pass and distribute within an offense even if it’s not a star trait of his.
When he’s playing outside of those play-finishing constraints, he becomes much more aggressive making plays for his teammates, looking for cuts and kick-outs created off his gravity as a scorer.
There’s room for growth and a lot of it will depend on just how aggressive he’s allowed to be and how much defensive attention he’s able to draw. However, he can make the easy reads, play out of handoffs, and is more than comfortable allowing his teammates to go to work.
Defense is where Essengue has the potential to be a menace. The offense is tantalizing and while flawed, the holes in his game on that end represent the massive amounts of untapped potential rather than shortcomings.
His stock (steals and blocks) production was absurd in the ANGT, averaging 2.5 steals per game and 2.3 blocks per game.
Although not small, Essengue lacks the world-consuming size and length of the Victor Wembanyamas and Chet Holmgrens that are starting to populate the NBA. He makes it up, however, with his elite athletic traits and versatility.
Off the ball, Essengue lurks like a crouching leopard, watching and surveying for something to mistakenly crop up that he can take advantage of. He loves lurking in passing lanes or rotating from the help side to explode and take the ball from his opponent.
In a younger competition like the ANGT, he capitalized on defensive pressure. Teams were much more willing to trap at half-court or hedge on screens, oftentimes forcing a pick-up or a hurried live-dribble pass. This is where Essengue would sneak in and create a fastbreak opportunity for himself.
Having played a de facto center role for Ulm in the tournament, Essengue was oftentimes the one hedging on these screen actions. Hedges are something that NBA teams almost disregard entirely, but among this caliber of competition, those hedges allowed Essengue to showcase his ground coverage, oftentimes recovering to the roll man or the ball-handler to swat a shot from behind.
Essengue also has a fantastic second jump. He’s a happy flyer, often getting off the ground too early, but can quickly touch back and hit the top of the box without much load up.
His rotations can be somewhat lackadaisical at times, but the motor runs hot enough to offset those occasional lapses.
On the ball is where Essengue’s versatility shines. He can switch on ball screens extremely effectively when not hedging, swallowing smaller ball handlers with his frenzy of limbs and quick feet.
Smaller ball handlers have a hard time getting around him, and while his aggressiveness to pressure the ball can lead to some bad gambles it led to a bevy of turnovers in the ANGT.
Against bigger players, he wins with speed and athleticism, beating them to the shots they would typically take over smaller defenders, and containing them with lateral movement.
He changes directions very well, reminding viewers his traditional position is as a forward and not a center. His versatility is truly his best trait as a prospect and it shows up in spades in his on-ball defense.
The question in the title of this article won’t be answered until much deeper into the process. There are many, many excellent prospects coming from all over the world, ready and willing to contend for that spot. This is especially the case when considering prospects choosing to come to America a year early to earn their stock in college basketball.
However, Essengue has shown that he’s undoubtedly deserving to be in the conversation. On the surface, he’s your traditional “potential in spades” prospect that has become increasingly polarizing over the years, but while still raw he continues to produce at every level he finds himself at and is always head and shoulders above his peers.
Versatility, as previously said, is the most tantalizing part of Essengue’s skill set. He’s incredibly long and athletic for a four, allowing him to fill several roles currently while projecting into many more depending on his developmental track.
It might take some time while the jump shot develops, but his athleticism gets him in the door and the array of roles he can fill and develop into will give him the chance to stay on the floor, playing in several different positions and lineups.
It would be unwise to say with any confidence that Essengue is the best international prospect in his class, or that he will certainly be by July of 2025, but he’s currently one of the top contenders for this title and should be a bonified lottery pick at this stage.
It’s really nice to see how your writing has advanced and improved over the years, as well as your scouting prowess. I haven’t followed a ton on the 2024 or 2025 classes so reading any article headlining players, especially from you, is helpful. I will definitely be following Noa and staying intrigued on what he can bring to the league.
Just starting to read your stuff and this was my first deep dive on a prospect.. really enjoyed the piece + eval, thanks for putting in the work!