It has been widely believed that the Charlotte Hornets' pick in the 2025 draft will depend on whoever is available between Ace Bailey and VJ Edgecombe. There are some wild card options, such as Tre Johnson and Kon Knueppel. A prospect that only a few people have in mind, though, is Noa Essengue.

FanSided's mock draft has the Hornets interestingly going for Essengue. To be fair, it's certainly intriguing to bring in the French forward, who is the second-youngest player of his draft class, has a long, lanky frame, has projected to be a plus-defender in pre-draft evaluations, and needs to develop his outside shooting to increase his chances of immediately carving out a role on any NBA team.

If that sounds familiar, that's because Charlotte went for a player with a similar archetype in last year's draft, shocking some folks by picking up Tidjane Salaun with the No. 6 selection. We all know how that has turned out so far for the struggling franchise.

Does it make sense for the Hornets to bring in another seemingly raw player from L'Hexagone and hope that he can reach his potential in the NBA as early as possible?

In his defense, Essengue has already looked like a more polished hoopster at this point in his career. He has delivered some terrific performances in Ratiopharm Ulm's current playoff run in the Basketball Bundesliga. The squad is currently two wins away from the championship round, where the 18-year-old can further boost his stock.

Still, he seems like a reach at No. 4 in the 2025 draft. The probability of him still being available in the six to 10 range is likely high. So, why should the Hornets select him earlier than expected? Well, they did the same last year when they went for Salaun despite presumably having the option of trading down in the draft, acquiring a few more assets, and then selecting the Paris native.

If the Hornets are really that impressed by Essengue, they should look for a way to drop in the draft order and stockpile some more assets instead of potentially wasting the No. 4 pick.

Of course, that's not to say that he would be a waste in Charlotte. After all, the 2025 playoffs have shown that defensively elite, non-shooting wings can thrive under the right system. Perhaps the Hornets could bite the bullet and take Essengue to unleash their own version of Amen or Ausar Thompson.

It would definitely be risky, though. The Salaun selection in 2024 has shown that the Hornets would be better off making low-risk, high-reward decisions, if plausible, rather than taking an off-the-wall move.