After a promising first half last season, Tre Mann is not making a solid case for staying on the Hornets rotation.
Tre Mann is learning the hard way on what it takes to be an everyday player in the NBA.
Imagine coming into this season, fully healthy along with your team’s fresh outlook. You’ve battled injuries all last season, but when your number gets called, you knew it was showtime.
Well, we may be in a bit of a predicament this season.
Mann looked amazing in the 13 games he played in last season, by averaging 14 points per game on 40% shooting from deep. Not only that, he was one of the best pick-and-roll players in the league until a back injury kept him out of commission for the duration of the 2024-25 season.
And to kick off November of the 2025 season, he posted four consecutive games with 10 or more points.
Then his game dramatically fell off.
It makes you wonder if Mann’s back is fully healed or not -- especially since back injuries can nag.
From the November 10th loss to the Lakers, Mann has played in 14 games and has only 6.0 points per game, shooting just 30% from 3-point land and a dreadful 28% from the field.
There’s no denying that Charlotte is in a transitional period, but after what the Hornets saw last season, there was reason to believe that Mann was going to be a critical part of this rotation.
The problem is, when both Kon Knueppel and Miles Bridges went down with ankle injuries, Mann only ended up playing just under 13 minutes and didn’t score a single point.
In the Hornets recent loss to the Bucks, Mann played only four minutes.
That is what we call “getting phased out.”
Perhaps Mann finds himself back into head coach Charles Lee’s good graces, and maybe his back isn’t fully healed. The problem is, the more players that carve extensive roles for themselves, the more expendable Mann’s two-year $16 million contract becomes.
Yet, if Mann still ends up to be a net negative, then the Hornets carry that contract with likely no takers.
Mann’s ineffectiveness has shown just how important players like Collin Sexton and Josh Green have been to this team.
Sexton’s name has been thrown around in trade reports, and nothing has truly come out of it, while Green has managed to become a sparkplug off the bench as a dynamic 3-point shooter.
Charlotte may be building its resume to get in line as one of the NBA’s Play-In teams, but if number-23 continues his porous play, the Hornets may be a Mann down.