NEW YORK – Billy Donovan explained the pending decision on Friday, but the Bulls made the move official on Sunday, announcing that 12th overall pick Noa Essengue had been assigned to the G League Windy City Bulls.
A deeper dive into the situation with Essengue and it’s apparent that no one should be surprised.
Donovan was asked if this is being treated like a red-shirt year for the 18-year-old French-born forward, and while he wouldn’t go that far, he did say this was the plan for Essengue way back in June, before they even drafted him.
“I think the front office was very transparent going all the way back to the draft,” Donovan said. “Noa was one of the guys we went through (in the draft process). You don’t know how the draft is going to play out or who is going to be there, but one of the things that we talked about prior to (his selection) was he was going to be a development piece. He was not going to be a guy that was going to be immediately in the rotation. There needed to be a plan for him.”
The plan was a simple one: Get him playing time in Summer League, offseason workouts, training camp, preseason games, and see if he does anything to change minds.
He did not.
While the Bulls love his IQ, he needs experience with the speed of the game, and he needs the key to the weightroom.
No one should be real surprised if he sees most of his rookie year with Windy City, especially with Donovan admitting that Isaac Okoro, Matas Buzelis, Patrick Williams and Julian Phillips are all in front of him at this point.
If all four of those guys stay healthy, and with Zach Collins (wrist surgery) expected back sooner than later, it will be up to the organization to make sure Essengue is developing the right way.
“This was a guy at 18 years old has a huge runway in front of him to get better and to improve, but we’re going to have to invest in his development,” Donovan said. “It may not be with us. It may be going back and forth between us and the G League. Those were things discussed back in June.”
Float off
Josh Giddey was in love with the float game coming over from Oklahoma City, and that was a problem. The point guard would rather drive the paint, stop and shoot a floater, than attack the rim at 6-foot-7 and having size over most opposing guards.
That hasn’t been the case so far this season, evident by his field goal percentage up to 48.1% and his free throw attempts going from 3.2 per game last year to 6.8 so far this season.
“Those are conversations that took place last year just from an efficiency standpoint,” Donovan said. “Some of those shots are very low-value shots. Most players, not just him, don’t shoot a great percentage on those types of shots. We need him downhill because he gets to the free throw line for us and that’s probably been the one biggest growth for us as a team from a year ago, is we’ve gotten to the line, at least through the early part of the season. Josh has been a huge catalyst to that.”
Thigh high
Ayo Dosunmu missed the rematch with the Knicks because of a left thigh contusion suffered in the second half of Friday’s win, but it was not deemed serious. The Bulls were calling it day-to-day.