The 2022-23 Oklahoma City Thunder’s season ended with the play-in tournament loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, which means it’s time for reflection.
Being one of the biggest overachievers in the league, the Thunder finished with a 40-42 record after being predicted by many to have high lottery odds.
Now that the season is in the books, let’s go back and evaluate all 19 players who suited up for the Thunder this past season. Grades will be handed out to every player in terms of what their expectations were heading into the season and how they lived up to them.
The 11th player in this installment is Tre Mann, who struggled in his second season and never really found a groove to right the ship.
(Editor’s note: We are starting individual grades for all players from the 2022-23 Oklahoma City Thunder. To access other reviews as part of this ongoing series, click here.)
2022-23 statisics:
- 7.7 points
- 2.3 rebounds
- 1.8 assists
- 39.3% shooting
- 31.5% 3-point shooting
- 76.4% free-throw shooting
Advanced stats:
- True-shooting percentage: 49.2%
- Usage rate: 20.7%
- Win shares: 0.5
- 3-point attempt rate: 51.3%
Significant Percentile Finishes:
- Isolation scorer: 72 percentile
- Transition scorer: 75.1 percentile
- Handoff: 52.1 percentile
- Cutter: 71.1 percentile
Contract:
- 2023-24: $3.2 million
- 2024-25: $4.9 million (team option)
Thoughts:
It was a rough year for Mann, and he would be the first to admit it. In his exit interview, he talked about how tough a sophomore season he had following high expectations heading into the 2022-23 campaign.
“It was definitely tough, a couple of bad days,” Mann said. “But I’m learning from it, and I’m going to continue to grow and get better.”
After such a strong finish to his rookie season — Mann averaged 15.7 points on 40.9% shooting, 4.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 15 games following last year’s All-Star break — he never recaptured that this past season.
Mann’s minutes slowly decreased as the season progressed, going from 20.5 minutes in November to 15.1 minutes in January. By the end of the season, he was out of the rotation and seldom saw action. Instead, the Thunder relied on Isaiah Joe to absorb most of the bench guard minutes.
So what happened with Mann? The simple explanation is his confidence significantly dipped. This was quite evident throughout the season, and he needed quick G League assignments to gain a boost. Unfortunately, these seldom translated to the NBA once he was recalled, which likely explains why his usage rate decreased.
Mann’s 3-point shot disappeared on him this season. After shooting 36% from 3 on 4.5 attempts last season, those numbers worsened to 31.5% on 3.8 attempts.
Breaking down his 3-point shooting, it looks like Mann might benefit from putting more corner 3-pointers in his diet. He shot 42.4% on corner 3s this past season, which puts him in the 69th percentile among combo players but only 6.9% of his 3-point attempts were from the corner spots, which puts him in the 31st percentile among combo players.
That’s one easy fix for Mann’s game following a disappointing second season. But at the end of the day, it seems like it’s more of a mental/psychological problem than a talent problem. Perhaps having four months off to regroup will help him out a ton. Perhaps not. We’ll just have to wait and see but I’m not totally out on him just yet.
It was a rough season for Mann, and playing opportunities will be even harder to come by next season as OKC adds another lottery rookie plus in-house improvements. In order to not get lost in the shuffle, he’ll need to quickly put this season behind him and focus on consistency this summer.
Moving Forward:
This was not the season Mann envisioned. After a strong finish to his rookie campaign, he was a popular choice for the most improved Thunder player heading into this season.
Instead, by the start of 2023, he was mostly out of the rotation and was occasionally assigned to the Blue. The projected microwaving scorer never really figured it out this season as his body language wavered through ups and downs.
For reference, Mann had four 20-plus point games in 67 games this season — a drastic drop from last season’s seven 20-plus point games in 60 games. He will likely always be an inconsistent scorer, but the highs were not as frequent as they were in his rookie season.
It’s now about turning the page from what Mann said was the worst season of his life. It’s going to be his most important offseason as he will try to earn his spot back in the rotation. That task will be more difficult as the Thunder will add another draft class to their roster along with other players naturally improving.
The scoring talent is definitely there for Mann. He’s one of the best ball-handlers on the roster and has a silky smooth outside shot that feathers in when he’s got it going. Heck, the peripherals showed that Mann is part of the upper echelon of isolation scorers in a down year! It’s about matching that talent with consistency.
If Mann can’t break into training camp as the post-2022 All-Star break version of himself, it could be another season of inconsistent playing time for him, which could spell doom for his Thunder tenure.
