33. Tre Mann
G | Florida | Birthdate: Feb. 3, 2001 (Age: 20) | 6-4 | 190 LBS | Hometown: Gainesville, Fla.
Background
Parents are Albert and Tai. Has five siblings. Parents are both well over 6-feet tall, and Mann grew a bit over the last year. Mann attended The Villages Charter Schools in Gainesville for his four years in high school, eventually leading them to a state semifinal berth while averaging over 23 points per game. On the Nike EYBL AAU circuit, he played for Each 1 Teach 1 and averaged 16 points per game. Ultimately was a clear five-star recruit with offers from elite high-major schools from around the country. Chose to stay home and go to Florida over Tennessee and Kansas prior to his senior year. Named a McDonald’s All-American as well as a Jordan Brand Classic selection. First year at Florida was rough. Mann was skinny and couldn’t quite get to the spots he needed to. Out of the 25 five-star prospects in the 2019 recruiting class, Mann finished 20th in points per game despite a reputation as a scorer. Decided to stick it out at Florida after entering the 2020 NBA Draft. Took the big leap forward everyone expected when he entered college basketball. Added nearly 20 pounds in the summer prior to his sophomore year and started to be able to accept contact in a more effective manner, allowing his clear skill level to prosper. Won first-team All-SEC honors and led Florida to the NCAA Tournament in the face of a difficult year marred by Keyontae Johnson’s midcourt collapse against Florida State. Finished top-10 in the SEC in both scoring and assists. Decided to be an early entrant to the 2021 NBA Draft following this strong sophomore season.
YEAR TEAM LEAGUE Age GP PPG RPG APG TOPG BPG SPG FG% 3P% FT% 19 29 5.3 1.9 0.7 0.1 0.6 27.5 65.5 20 24 16.0 5.6 3.5 0.1 1.4 40.2 83.1
Strengths
Has great size for the lead guard position at 6-foot-4. Has really worked to put on strength over the last year and should continue to get stronger over the next few years physically.
Handle is extremely creative. Can get to his spots by playing at his own pace with ease. Largely uses it to get to his own offense. Real scorer out of isolation and out of ball screens. Decelerates exceptionally well, which allows him to stop on a dime and pull up. Loves to get into a series of hesitation and in-and-out dribbles. Big fan of the hang dribble pull-up, but much more diversified than that. Because of that ability to decelerate, he’s pretty vicious with crossovers. Can go right to left crossover into a side-step pull-up. Loves to hit a quick pound dribble with his left into a step-back, which creates real separation from defenders. But his favored move is the left-to-right between-the-legs dribble into a side- step left pull-up. Favors the step-back going left but has also showed some ability to hit pull-ups going to his right.
Does almost all of those moves to get into his pull-up game as opposed to getting forward toward the rim. Has always been a very high-level shooter. Very simple mechanics. Doesn’t elevate much. No ball dip. No wasted motion. Just very quick transfer from pull-up to fire or catch to fire. Nearly unlimited range. Hit over 40 percent from 3 this season but wasn’t buoyed by catch-and-shoot attempts. Hit 41 percent of his 78 pull- up 3-point attempts this year, per Synergy. Extremely smooth getting into the pull-up game. Absolutely cannot go under any ball-screen and dribble-hand-off exchange against him. Extreme confidence and a quick release to pull-up from anywhere within 30 feet. Also has the kind of solid floater game that you’d expect from this level of shooter, given his touch. Hit 46.5 percent of his 43 floater attempts this past season according to Synergy, a strong number.
Good but not great passer out of ball screens. Particularly good at two types of passes. Excellent at hitting the roller off a couple of steps to stretch out the defense, especially when going to his right. Can hit the occasional lobs but for the most part was looking for mini skips over the top of the defense to the rim or wraparounds. When he goes to his left, almost always looking toward the cross corner for the kickout 3, which he can effectively make. The good news is that those are the two passes regularly there in the NBA, so it’s important that he has those down.
Weaknesses
Doesn’t have a ton of length and not an elite athlete. Doesn’t have a great first step or high-level quickness. Not a ton of explosiveness vertically. Defenses won’t have an issue switching bigs out onto him that are merely good athletes, not great ones. About an even wingspan to his height.
2019-20
FLORIDA
NCAA (SEC)
2020-21
FLORIDA
NCAA (SEC)
1.1
2.8
35.6
45.9
2021 NBA DRAFT GUIDE 63
The good news is that he has good positional size. But he needs to keep getting stronger now because of it. Lack of length and lack of strength combination affects him all over the court right now, particularly as a driver and scorer.
Doesn’t really get into the teeth of the defense. More of a perimeter player. When he does get two feet into the paint, can get a bit loose with the ball. If you really get into his dribble with some pressure into his body, he struggles. Can often drive himself into some trouble, too. Still hasn’t gotten particularly good at dealing with doubles and finding the quick skip or quick pass to take advantage of the four-on-three. Doesn’t really make passes going to his left and doesn’t look particularly comfortable as a live-dribble passer with his left hand. Almost always wants to get it back to his right hand. Needs to get stronger on the ball, and the best way to do that will be to get physically stronger and better at playing through contact.
Not a three-level scorer. Mostly just a pull-up/floater guy. Finishing numbers aren’t terrible but he doesn’t finish above the rim. Still doesn’t absorb contact well and tries to avoid it as a result. Most of his finish makes happened with an open area at the rim as opposed to finishing around defenders. Very early take off point away from the rim typically but doesn’t have the ability to extend and finish due to that lack of length.
Final issue comes on defense. Really bad at containing dribble penetration. Seems to have a casual, flat-footed approach far too often. Guys without elite first steps often had no issues getting by. Even when he’s on ball and in position, he still struggles at times to load up and absorb anyone who initiates contact onto him. Often gambles for steals and gets home sometimes. He also often gets caught in no-man’s land out of position where he has to try to recover but doesn’t have the length or straight-line speed to really get back. Also needs to get drastically better on close-outs, where he’s really poor right now. There is just not much to be excited about on defense from Mann. Would take significant work for him to get to a league-average level.
Summary
The idea of what Mann is as a scorer is tantalizing. The NBA is a jump-shooting league. The guys who can get their own shot, particularly from behind the NBA 3-point line, are more valuable than ever. Having the skills he does as a shot creator and shooter gives him some real upside if he can iron out the rest of his game. But Mann is still a project and a developing player. He would be taken advantage of pretty substantially on the defensive end right now and has a long way to go to get to anywhere resembling an average level in the NBA. The key swing skill will be how he improves his ball control and ability to deal with pressure as a ballhandler. If he can tighten that up, and start being more comfortable getting into the middle of the floor without turning it over while making the passes he does already, he should stick around in the NBA for a while. But he’s probably going to have to iron some of that out in the G League first.
