As Tre Mann enters his sophomore season with the Oklahoma City Thunder, the biggest question that comes to mind is whether he will develop and improve his game, Or will he slump and look worse than last year?
We see it happen all the time when rookies transition into their second year in the NBA and regress with subpar performances on the court.
For example, Oklahoma City’s Theo Maledon had his problems last year. For Maledon, it led to Thunder fans seeing him slowly fall out of the rotation and eventually being sent to the G-League for spurts.
Is Tre Mann in line for a second-year leap? Or will he suffer from a Sophomore slump?
Now, when looking at how he started versus how he finished his rookie season, Mann showed positive signs throughout the campaign and battled through adversity and a sluggish start. The Florida product came into his rookie season and had to adjust to NBA length and closeouts, which hindered his ability to get his shot off early in the season.
One of these positives would be his ability to score. Last season, Mann posted two different 20-point quarters. One against the Boston Celtics and the other against the Miami Heat.
Mann averaged 4.8 points per game in October before seeing that average leap to 16 points per game in the final month of his rookie season.
The lone knock on Tre Mann’s offense was his shooting splits during his rookie season. His best month from a shooting efficiency standpoint was in October when he shot 43 percent from the field. Tre Mann can shoot lights out from anywhere on the court, but he has to be able to do it at an efficient rate if he wants to stay in the rotation next year.
He returned to Summer League as a Sophomore last month and struggled out of the gates. The best game of his Vegas tenure was his last one in which in suffered an ankle injury.
That of course does not put the nail in the coffin for his second year in the NBA, he struggled in summer league as a rookie as well before he dazzled on the Paycom Center hardwood scoring the basketball.