Will Tre Mann survive the OKC Thunder Roster Crunch?
By Parker Eaves
Tre Mann is a 6’3, 184-pound combo guard who was selected 18th overall in the 2021 NBA Draft by the Oklahoma City Thunder. Mann was in the same draft class with Josh Giddey, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, and Aaron Wiggins.
NBA Training Camp officially opens in less than three weeks, and it will be the most important training camp of Mann’s basketball career. He is firmly on the bubble of the roster after an underwhelming second year. Mann’s shooting statistics and efficiency went down this past season after a promising rookie season. Do the Thunder still believe in his potential, or are they ready to move to someone with a higher floor?
OKC Roster Bubble: Will Tre Mann survive training camp?
The Thunder are in a roster crunch this summer and have to make some tough decisions on players to keep. For the first time since they began the rebuild, the Thunder will most likely have to cut a player from the 2021 Draft.
The decision on who to cut likely comes down to Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Tre Mann. It is a big training camp for both of them, and their careers so far have been similar. They have both had promising rookie seasons, followed by a disappointing second year.
Mann had the opportunity to play in Summer League in Las Vegas this year, and it is rare for a third-year NBA player to play in the Summer League. It shows where Tre Mann is on the roster at this point and highlights how well he needs to perform in training camp and preseason. The Thunder brought in two guards who are expected to be ahead of Mann in the rotation in: Cason Wallace and Vasilije Micic.
Looking at the guards that are currently on the roster, Mann would be the seventh guard in the rotation. The minutes gradually went down as the season went on for Mann, even when he didn’t play in the first play-in game vs. the New Orleans Pelicans.
In the first month of the season, Mann was averaging 24 minutes per game, and in the last month of the season, he was averaging 14 minutes per game. By the end of the season, Mark Daigneault didn’t trust him to be a regular part of the rotation.