He’s the Mann: Why This Young Guard Is Giving Hornets Fans Something to Cheer About
The Charlotte Hornets entered the 2024-2025 NBA season with the longest active playoff drought in the league. This drought has spanned over eight years, as the team last made the playoffs in the 2015-16 season. Back then, the Hornets were led by all-time leading scorer Kemba Walker and post-presence Al Jefferson, along with sixth man Jeremy Lin. Now, the Hornets are led by franchise talent Lamelo Ball and recent number two overall selection Brandon Miller, with sixth man Tre Mann, who was acquired from the Thunder near last season’s trade deadline. While Ball has impressed, Miller has missed half of the team’s eight games due to injury, and Tre Mann has dazzled off of the bench.
After being acquired by the Hornets last year, Tre Mann posted 11.9 points per game, on 36 percent three-point shooting while averaging 31 minutes per contest. Since being acquired by the Thunder in the Gordon Hayward trade, Mann started in all 28 of his appearances for the Hornets last year. Moving to the bench this season, Mann has seen an increase in scoring and efficiency despite playing fewer minutes per game. In eight games for Charlotte this season, Mann is averaging 16.1 points while shooting 45.8 percent from the field, 40 percent from deep, and 100 percent from the free throw line. These numbers are an improvement on his stats for the Hornets last season, despite averaging five fewer minutes per game. While Mann’s assists per game, rebounds per game, and steals per game all have decreased from last season, they are still respectable figures factoring in less time spent on the court. Along with Lamelo Ball, Mann has been a bright spot for this Charlotte team as they sit at 3-5.
While the Hornets have relied on Lamelo Ball and Miles Bridges in seasons past, it is evident that they have been missing a spark plug off of the bench. Thus far, Mann has been exactly that and has given many Hornets fans something to cheer about this year. Charlotte fans have gone eight years without seeing the Hornets in the playoffs and have experienced seven years since the neighboring Carolina Panthers made the postseason. With that in mind, the Hornets will hope to stay healthy in order to break Charlotte’s city-wide playoff drought this season.
