The Bulls’ Las Vegas Summer League run ended Friday with a fourth loss in five games, but the scoreboard was never really the point. Summer League is where teams hunt for clues, and Chicago got a few - some encouraging, some messy, and one that could say plenty about the future of a recent lottery pick.
The biggest eyebrow-raiser came with Noa Essengue. Chicago’s handling of the 19-year-old Frenchman in Vegas looked strange from the outside.
After he was benched in the second half of the second game, Essengue said Tiago Splitter called him out for his lack of energy. From there, his role shrank fast.
He came off the bench and averaged only 13 minutes per game over the next two contests before sitting out the Bulls’ finale.
Essengue struggled, no question. But the limited runway after his Summer League debut raised its own questions.
Accountability matters, especially for a young player, but publicly calling out a lottery pick the organization took just last year is not exactly a soft landing. It also hints that the new regime may not be nearly as invested in him as the previous one was.
With GM Bryson Graham and a new coaching staff now in charge, Essengue could be on a short leash.
Dailyn Swain’s week was rough in a different way. Chicago’s 15th-overall pick had a Summer League that will invite plenty of noise, and not much of it will be kind.
He shot 4-for-31 from the field and 0-for-7 from three, and he finished with seven turnovers against nine assists. He didn’t knock down a shot outside the paint in the four games he played, and his struggles were a major part of why the Bulls had such a hard time against the competition.
That kind of line is going to trigger the usual draft-night panic. Some will jump straight to bust talk.
Some will say the Bulls blew the pick. And yes, there’s reason to be concerned about a 21-year-old rookie who looked this shaky.
But Summer League is still Summer League, and plenty of players have looked lost here before figuring it out later. Swain still has on-ball ability and defensive upside, and those traits give him a real path forward.
It just probably won’t show up in his rookie season.
If there was a bright spot worth circling, it was Jaylin Sellers. The undrafted rookie signed a two-way contract with Chicago and ended up playing more minutes than anyone else on the summer roster. His full stat line through five games doesn’t jump off the page, but the flashes were there.
Sellers’ jumper came and went, and he finished at 23.7% from deep. Still, he kept firing, which matters.
He hit 42.9% on 5.5 attempts per game in his final season at Providence, so there’s at least some evidence that the shot can translate. More importantly, he brought a real two-way presence.
Sellers defended hard, made plays, and came away with eight steals and four blocks in five games. He’s strong, physical, and capable of creating his own shot.
For a player on a two-way deal, that’s a pretty useful starting point.
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