Tomorrow night is the 2025 NBA Draft, and for the Toronto Raptors (at least as it stands now), they will be selecting ninth overall in the lottery.
Fans and pundits alike have their go-to prospect at that spot, and even the Raptors assistant GM revealed the team's ideal draft scenario. But while we ponder our top choices, perhaps the perfect draft pick for Raptors’ boss Masai Ujiri is just waiting to be selected: 18-year-old Frenchman Noa Essengue.
Masai Ujiri could be all over a prospect like Noa Essengue at the 9th pick
Standing at 6-foot-9 with a 7-foot wingspan, Essengue’s physical gifts are hard to ignore. But as one of the talent pool's youngest prospects, he’s still very raw and inexperienced in many areas, meaning any team that drafts him will need patience as he develops into a more polished player.
Essengue has that pep in his step, allowing him to move across the court, whether closing out on the wings or using his length to be an interior presence. However, despite his impressive frame, Essengue will likely need to add more muscle to compete with the more burly forwards in the NBA.
Essengue's 2024-25 stats with his Ratiopharm Ulm ball club: 12.4 points on 56% shooting, 29.4% from three, 5.3 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.4 steals, across 18 games with an average of 23.7 minutes per game.
He might not be a standout defender right now and his jumpshot is still far from even being half-decent at the NBA level, but Essengue’s intangibles suggest he could easily become a very moldable pet project.
You could say Essengue is "two years away from being two years away," much like another Raptors draft pick once upon a time in Bruno Caboclo, the 20th overall selection in the 2014 NBA Draft. I’d reckon that Essengue has slightly higher potential than Caboclo, but ultimately, it’s about taking a gamble on these raw international prospects and believing in what they could become in the best-case scenario.
Masai Ujiri always seems to employ this strategy when scouting talent and we all know how highly he regarded Giannis Antetokounmpo heading into the 2013 NBA Draft.
I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say Essengue has a Giannis-like ceiling, but if Ujiri sees something special beneath the surface, there’s a realistic chance he’s the ideal ninth pick (even if Essengue might not directly contribute to this winning core).
It wasn't too long ago when Toronto was a breeding ground for players of this archetype — the countless "Vision 6'9" wings and tall forwards assembled on the Raptors. Toronto still has remnants of this philosophy in their current roster construction, and I imagine Masai Ujiri would be tempted by the allure of adding an international prospect who fits this profile.
Essengue might not become a star overnight, but his energy and upside could be the calling cards that earn him significant playing time down the road.