Noa Essengue Explains Leaving Team During Germany League Finals for 2025 NBA Draft
Noa Essengue's team is in the midst of the German league finals, but the prospect opted to miss the remainder of the BBL postseason to attend the NBA draft.
Essengue explained his decision on Tuesday, saying that he believes his team will be fine without him.
"The draft is really special, that’s maybe the best day of my life," he said. "I trust my teammates, I know they’ll do their job."
Essengue, a forward for Ratiopharm Ulm of the BBL, was among the 19 prospects invited to the Green Room in New York City for Wednesday's draft. Back in Germany, his team currently leads Bayern Munich 2-1 in the best-of-five series with Game 4 coming on Tuesday night.
Essengue has been an integral part of the team this year, putting up 12.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game in the EuroCup season. He hasn't been extremely effective in the finals so far, averaging just 3.7 points per game and playing 15 minutes or less in each contest.
While the German league season prevented him from participating in workouts with teams, Essengue is widely projected to be a top-10 pick. Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman projects the Brooklyn Nets to take him with the eighth overall pick.
“We had good conversations. That was pretty cool. A good feeling," Essungue told reporters about his conversations with the Nets. "Nice people in the gym. Nice people around me.”
Essengue is ranked fourth on the latest big board from Bleacher Report's NBA staff.
His teammate Ben Saraf, who is also expected to be taken in this year's draft, was not invited to the Green Room and will instead look to help Ulm clinch a championship on Tuesday.
“He’s a first round pick," Essengue said of Saraf.
Wasserman projects the Boston Celtics to take Saraf with the 28th overall pick and he is the 21st-ranked player on Bleacher Report's draft big board.
