The Bulls don’t have an Eiffel Tower.
There’s only one of those in the NBA right now and Victor Wembanyama will be on full display Wednesday night when the Spurs come to the United Center.
No, the draft lottery only smiled on San Antonio that 2023 season, importing the French phenom to US soil.
The hope the Bulls do hold onto? Maybe, just maybe, they have to settle for the Mont Saint-Michel. Not nearly as majestic, nowhere as iconic, and very few postcards being sent out, but one of the more resilient natural defensive fortresses in all of France.
That’s the vision they have for Noa Essengue, and the outlook the second-year player suddenly has for himself.
“My teammates and coach, the whole organization, trusts me to guard the best player,” Essengue said on Tuesday. “I talked to (coach) Tiago (Splitter), with (former Bulls coach) Billy (Donovan) last year, and Tiago told me if you do that one thing right, you’re going to get more and more (playing time).”
A message that didn’t initially hit home without some tough love.
When Splitter was hired from Portland in the offseason, he didn’t know what he had in the French kid who was selected No. 12 overall as an admitted project and spent all but six minutes of last season in street clothes because of season-ending shoulder surgery.
Then when he did coach him in Summer League, he had even more concerns. No energy, no physicality, too emotional. Splitter actually benched Essengue in Game 1 and made him a reserve. A move that put the ball in Essengue’s court.
After all, the front office and coaching staff were all new. They had no allegiance to Essengue’s development. It was sink or swim for the 19-year-old. He chose the latter.
“It shows he’s a winner, he’s a resilient player,” Splitter said. “He wants to do the right thing. He wants to do what the coaching staff feels is the right thing to do for him. When we got back from (Summer League) he came to me and asked, ‘What should I do?’ I said you’ve got to defend, make good decisions on offense and crash the boards, and that’s exactly what he’s doing. So I’m glad he’s coachable, he’s working on it. It’s not easy to play defense. It’s a tough job. People don’t talk too much in the media when you’re a good defender, and he’s just going for it. Doing the little things that matter to be honest.”
Still with some hiccups but getting better.
Essengue’s role is simple coming off the bench: Pickup the best opposing player full-court and make his life difficult. He still fouls too much, he still lacks physicality at times, but it’s a work in progress.
“Just get more physical, that’s the main point,” Essengue said of the next step. “Guys are trying to bully me and things like that so get low to the ground and be more physical.”
As for the other French guy that will be in the gym Wednesday night, well, for a Bulls team that has one of the least efficient offenses so far this season, good luck.
“We talk about this every time we play against him,” Splitter added of Wembanyama. “What people don’t say as much is he changes the game the most on defense because you don’t have easy shots against him, right. Even getting close to the rim is hard because of his (7-foot-4) size. We have to be very mindful of when to attack the rim, how to attack the rim, do it and be prepared for it.”