2025 NBA Draft scouting report: Noa Essengue, F, Ratiopharm Ulm

Summary: Essengue is a toolsy forward with a fluid handle, dynamic finishing package, and highly versatile defense. But his long-term upside hinges on the jumper clicking. And if it doesn’t, his defense must reach a level that prevents coaches from keeping him off the floor.

Comparisons: Nicolas Batum, Al-Farouq Aminu

Strengths

Fluid athleticism: Essengue just looks like an NBA player with enormous arms and graceful movements on the floor, whether he’s using an off-ball screen to slingshot toward the basket or sprinting in transition to ready for a lob dunk.

Drive game: He’s such a natural with the ball in his hands, using spin moves, euro-steps, and other fluid maneuvers to get into the paint. There, he can take off-balanced, wrong-footed layups and use either hand, or get flashy with Giannis-style scoop layups to score. And if he has room to leap, he can loudly dunk. All of these skills give him major face-up scoring potential, especially if he can successfully develop a perimeter jumper.

Shooting progress: Over three consecutive years, he’s gone from a hackable nonshooter to a player making 24.4% of his 3s and 70.1% of his free throws. The numbers aren’t great, but they’re a notable improvement. His form looks smooth, and he has good touch on layups and floaters near the basket. Maybe his upward trajectory continues in the years to come.

Passing: Essengue has a strong feel for the game. He pings the ball around the floor with decisive passes within the flow of the offense. He shows creativity with interior wrap-arounds and over-the-head passes out of the post to shooters across the court.

Versatile defense: Multi-positional defender who can switch onto smaller, quicker players or hold his own against larger ones. He can also be plugged into different positions, whether he needs to chase someone off screens and close out on shooters, or focus on offering help defense at the rim. He’s extremely active off-ball, showing strong focus rotating at the rim or getting his long arms in the passing lanes to rack up deflections.

Concerns

Shooting: He has made progress but still hasn't proven he can be an effective floor spacer. Developing into a reliable shooter would unlock so many of his talents. It’s the key to his future.

Strength: He needs to fill out his lean frame, which would make him even more of a threat scoring at the rim and further enhance his defensive versatility. As of now, he can get overpowered on defense or get forced to take layups shying away from contact.

Fundamentals: He drives into traffic too often, which shows how his game still lacks polish. Unsurprising considering his youth, but an area that he needs to address in the years to come.