The Chicago Bulls added to their young roster on Wednesday night by selecting French big man Noa Essengue with the 12th overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. The Bulls have been in the rebuild phase for a few years now, and they trying to build a talented young nucleus that helps bring wins to the city of Chicago for years to come. At 18 years old, Essengue fits right into the mold. However, the Bulls front office is still asking for patience.

Bulls fans feel like they have been patient for a while, but they will need to wait a little bit longer as Chicago continues to add to its roster. The Bulls have a plan in place, but it is going to take some time.

“We’ve seen encouraging growth from our young core, and we’re going to keep pushing,” Bulls GM Marc Eversley said after night one of the NBA Draft, according to a post from Cody Westerlund. “Building something great, making it last, it takes a long time. It takes planning, patience and doing the hard work without taking shortcuts.”

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In terms of the Noa Essengue pick, Bulls fans are going to need to show some patience there as well. Essengue has all of the tools necessary to be successful in the NBA, but the youngster will need to polish his craft before becoming a consistent contributor on this team. The Bulls know that, and they have a plan for how they want to develop him. There were more ready players available with the 12th pick, but Chicago believes that Essengue will be worth the wait.

The Bulls have a chance to add another young piece to the roster on Thursday as night two of the 2025 NBA Draft will go down. The Bulls have the 15th pick in the second round, which is the 45th overall pick in the draft. However, there has been some chatter about the team trading that pick away.

Day two of the 2025 NBA Draft will get underway on Thursday at 8 ET from the Barclays Center in New York.