Rockets Take French Forward in Latest Mock Draft

The NCAA National Championship is tonight, and the Houston Rockets will support their hometown collegiate buddies in the Houston Cougars as they face the Florida Gators in San Antonio.

The Rockets will also keep an eye on the top prospects going into the 2025 NBA Draft, where Houston could land a lottery pick as the team controls the Phoenix Suns' draft pick.

For The Win contributor Bryan Kalbrosky conducted a recent mock draft where the Rockets held the No. 11 overall pick. Instead of picking a collegiate prospect, the Rockets were lined up to take French forward Noa Essengue.

"France’s Noa Essengue ranks seventh-best among all players in Defensive Statistical Impact (DSI) among those with at least seven games played in the Eurocup, per Cerebro Sports. He ranks thirteenth-best in Player Efficiency Rating (22.8) among qualified players in the Eurocup, via RealGM. Essengue is also the second-youngest player in the draft," Kalbrosky writes.

The Rockets don't have a ton of roster space or minutes to properly develop a high draft prospect, but with Essengue, they could look to keep him in Europe for another year or two. Essengue is just 18 years old, and if he were to come to the Rockets, he likely wouldn't play as much as he is now in Germany with Ratiopharm Ulm, which was home to two NBA draft picks last year.

It's rare nowadays for a lottery pick to be stashed overseas, but this is a unique situation for Houston where it would make sense, especially if the Rockets kept the pick.