Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells wasn’t one to sugarcoat.
In talking about passive-minded rookies, Parcells once said, “If they don’t bite when they’re puppies, they usually won’t bite.”
It’s a different sport, but the adage applies when it comes to the Bulls’ Noa Essengue. That puppy ain’t biting. Heck, he’s not even nipping.
There’s even worse news for the second-year French forward.
According to a source, he has been spoken to about his lack of physicality and been warned about his emotions on the court. More important, the new regime didn’t draft him, so while it’s in the business of development, it’s not going to follow a path of blind loyalty.
No, that was strictly for the Arturas Karnisovas regime.
As Summer League showed, Essengue will be treated with tough love and will be on a short leash. If that message doesn’t sink in quickly, don’t be surprised if the No. 12 overall pick from the 2025 draft is shopped in a package at some point this season.
No organization is looking to give up on a 19-year-old, 6-11 prospect, but new executive vice president of basketball operations Bryson Graham also knows that it doesn’t take long for prospect to become suspect.
Graham is from the school of SLAP (size, length, athleticism, physicality). Essengue’s school is SLIM (soft, long, intimidated, mild). SLIM is going to become none — as in playing time — quickly.
New coach Tiago Splitter demonstrated that last month in Las Vegas, starting Essengue in the first game and quickly making him a bench player by the second half and for the remaining games.
Splitter even had a chance to throw a life preserver Essengue’s way when asked if the tentativeness could’ve been a result of the shoulder surgery that cost Essengue most of his rookie season, and Splitter opted to keep him treading water.
“I don’t know if it’s because of the injury,” Splitter said. “He’s got to maybe bring a little more force in everything he does. That’s something we’re working on.”
That’s all well and good, but what if Parcells is spot on. If Essengue doesn’t have bite in his game at 19, does it magically appear at 20 or 21?
“That’s something he’s got to do,” Splitter said. “Yeah, we’re going to keep pushing him.”
Next month’s training camp will be vital for Essengue. The Bulls aren’t looking for him to become some sort of enforcer, but being knocked down every other time up the floor and looking like a baby giraffe instead of a talented lottery pick was not in the plans.
This is now on Essengue to fix.
And it’s also another reminder of the stain left behind from the Karnisovas era.
The old front office suffered from poor talent evaluation.
Karnisovas settled on Patrick Williams with the No. 4 pick in 2020, while multiple scouts and most of the draft room wanted Tyrese Haliburton.
Karnisovas not only was fixated on Williams, but he didn’t even consider Haliburton a serious prospect. A source indicated that Karnisovas didn’t even think Haliburton would be a top-four talent on the Bulls’ roster at the time.
Before his Achilles injury in the 2025 NBA Finals, there was an argument to be made that Haliburton was a top-four talent in the entire Eastern Conference.
A source that used to be in the organization said Bulls scouts liked Joan Beringer — another French player — more than Essengue, but because voices that opposed Karnisovas often fell on deaf ears or were pushed out of the organization, there was little resistance offered up.
An NBA source told the Sun-Times this week that one organization didn’t even have Essengue in the top 20 of that draft.
The reason was his lack of physicality.
The puppy didn’t bite.