Recent comments from Billy Donovan made it sound like he was a big fan of Derik Queen during the draft process, and it made Bulls fans question if Donovan truly supported the selection of Noa Essengue.
Chicago Bulls fans have been split on the selection of Noa Essengue with the 12th in the 2025 NBA Draft. It was a selection that supported Bulls VP of Basketball Operations Arturas Karnisovas message of "patience," as the 18-year old Essengue will likely take at least two years before we see him make a major impact in Chicago. He was selected one pick ahead of Derik Queen, the offensively-talented big man with defensive concerns who has looked NBA-ready in his brief time in New Orleans. Queen was discussed in relation to Chicago's 12th pick quite a bit leading up to the draft, making many of the shortlists that projected who the Bulls pick would be.
When Queen went the pick after Essengue, Bulls fans were tremendously shocked for two reasons:
1) The Bulls (likely) turned down a massive trade off from the New Orleans Pelicans in which the Pels gave up an unprotected 2026 1st round pick in order to acquire Queen at 13.
2) The Bulls preached "patience," while at the same time, there being plenty of rumors that Chicago wasn't selecting Queen because of his defense, something that doesn't seem to make sense to worry about now for a team that is nowhere near title contention. (i.e., Queen's defense can be coached up and improve over time, so wouldn't Chicago have made perfect sense with Nikola Vucevic in place as the starter/veteran?)
The Bulls instead went with Essengue, a player who has one of the highest ceilings of the class but will take some time to see those tangible results. To make matters worse, Donovan does not seem all that interested in finding real playing time for Essengue, who has seen a couple stints under five minutes in a pair of NBA appearances.
Comments from Donovan made to The Athletic's Joel Lorenzi sparked plenty of passionate discussion amongst Bulls fans, already feeling unsure of the Bulls vision.
Donovan's verbiage, "I think they thought that Noa, maybe from an upside standpoint..." made many Bulls fans feel as if he was showing his hand that he did not support the pick of Essengue at 12th overall.
Mentioning that when the draft comes around there's "things that happened in that moment, you've got five minutes to make a pick," did not give off the impression of someone who was confident in the selection. The fact that Donovan is close to former Maryland head coach Kevin Willard and discussed Queen extensively with him, certainly makes it sound like that is where Donovan wanted to go with the pick.
This was a tough thing to hear for Bulls fans who are not seeing Essengue play real minutes, and also are watching Queen average 12.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, and a combined 1.9 steals, albeit for a struggling New Orleans team.
In Donovan's defense here, he has been nothing but supportive of Essengue throughout the draft process and now. But for a Bulls fanbase that is starved for production from their rookie while the rest of the 2025 NBA Draft class looks amazing, Donovan's comments about Derik Queen only worried them further in terms of if everyone in the organization is on the same page.
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