Tre Mann in workout for Rockets

According to The Athletic’s Kelly Iko (once of this parish) the Rockets held a workout with NBA prospect Tre Mann.

Tre Mann is a 6’5” guard out of Florida who attempted to enter last year’s draft, but withdrew for another season as a Gator after finding little interest. This apparently was a good move for Mann, as his shooting improved greatly. He’s now garnering interest around pick #20 in the 2021 draft.

Mann evidently spent another collegiate year working on his shooting. His 3pt percentage rose from 27.5% on 2.8 attempts per game to 40.2% on 4.7 attempts per game. His free throw shooting also improved, from 65% to 83%. In fact, Mann improved across the board, with his field goal percentage rising to 46% from 36% the year before, and well as seeing strong increases in rebounds, assists and steals - more than doubling these stats, and exceeding a solely linear improvement due to increased minutes.

He’s an interesting combo guard prospect, and apparently grew two inches from his freshman to sophomore season and Kevin O’Connor of the Ringer proposes he might still be growing.

He’s got a well-rounded offensive game, and with improved shooting, could be an excellent fit for a Rockets team that struggled to find adequate point guard play, with or without John Wall in the lineup.

The main knock on Mann is that he lacks elite NBA athleticism, and a quick enough first step, but I wonder if that’s an entirely appropriate question for a young player who is literally still growing? Also, some of you might be familiar with my opinion that unless a players’ athleticism (and it’s hard to even know what people mean by such a broad term) is genuinely marginal, or elite, then skills and understanding of the game is far more important.

Being able to shoot, handle the ball, and attack the lane should be sufficient to stick for a player chosen in the early 20s of the draft.

There are also concerns on decision making, and defense (like most young players) but unless he’s genuinely an intrinsically bad defender, that can be taught. Mann just turned 20, so he’s not at all old for a second year collegiate player.

There’s a lot of upside in Mann, and some downside that he won’t be able to generate enough separation to score. Generally a team can’t have too many wing-sized ballhandlers and scorers. Mann could be another member of the Rockets 6’5” Assault Team.