Trey Mann should have been like his teammate Josh Giddy and didn't need to play in the Summer League again!
But Trey Mann, who has almost emptied the squad of central defenders and looks like he wants to rely on him for the 2022-23 season, has not shown the expected improvement. In the past two years, although Trey Mann has occasionally made good works, more often than not, he has shown a lack of confidence on the pitch and suffered from gains and losses on the spot.
In his second season professionally, Mann still spent going back and forth between sitting on the bench in the NBA and relegating to the G League to regain confidence, and when there were not many guards on the team, he had no chance to play than his rookie season, and although he played a single-game triple-double of 24 points, 12 assists and 12 rebounds in the final regular season last season, the final key Play-in play-in, playing only 5 minutes in 2 games, said that he did not gain the trust of head coach Mark Daignnot.
Such a Trey Mann, although the skill set is a ball-carrying self-propelled gun threatening, in good condition is the Thunder rookie all-time shooting the most three-pointers in the half-time, the most points in the half-time is also impressive, but will definitely be listed by the Thunder fans as one of the most disappointed players last season.
A teammate who joined the team in the 2021 draft at the same time as Trey Mann, Josh Giddy has consolidated his position on the team, Aaron Wiggins is already a well-positioned and consistent player, and Jeremiah Robinson-Earle, who also wants to play in the summer league, is experiencing a big injury and needs to play more games to find a feeling, which is understandable, but what about Trey Mann?
He will also appear on the Thunder's summer league roster, of course, which means that the team has not given up on him, and he does have 1 or 2 seasons left during his rookie contract to prove himself, but in fact, he is running out of time and opportunity to rebuild the Thunder, who have seen the dawn of a breakthrough.
Because the Thunder have not only established aces Shay Giljes-Alexander and Josh Giddy as the starting backcourt partners, Jaylen Williams, who has performed brilliantly in his rookie season, and Luganz Dort, a defensive key player, can also help with the ball, and in the recent NBA draft, the team selected guard Carson Wallace, the 10th pick in the first round, and signed a 3-year contract with Vasilije Micic, the top guard in European basketball today.
After the changes and additions to the draft, selection, trades, and free agent signings, many media have arranged the Thunder's roster depth table:
First Team: G. Shay Giljes-Alexander/G. Josh Giddy/F. Lügunz Dort/F. Jaylen Williams/C. Chet Holmgren.
Second Team: G-Vasilije Micic/G-Carson Wallace (Rookie)/F-Isaiah Joe/F-Kenrich Williams/C-Jaelin Williams.
Third Team: Aaron Wiggins, Alexei Pokushevsky, Jeremiah Robinson-Earle, Usman Dieng.
Two-way contract: Kiontay Johnson (rookie).
NBA contract players who are not on the list of the 14 players: Trey Mann, Davis Bertans, Victor Oladipo, Jack White, and other players who only signed Exhibit 10 contracts to play in the summer league.
With only 15 players (+ 3 two-way contract players) logged in at the beginning of the season and 14 players from the first to third lineups listed as relatively safe, Trey Mann is not to mention making it to the second team, even if even the third team is in danger - he doesn't even have the role of Davis Bertans and Victor Oladipo to fill salary space with contracts!
So the rest of the period is quite crucial for Trey Mann, he doesn't have to put up good numbers on the summer league court (after all, this is not the most important purpose of the summer league), but he must catch up with the team's expectations during the game or training process, so that the coaching staff can see the reason why he can continue to be in the Thunder's blueprint.
Because the Thunder are no longer the team that had a lot of positions and time to try and make mistakes two years ago, the floor of competition within the team has become higher and higher.
Although I don't like Trey Mann's tattoos, Xiao Yuan likes Trey Mann's skill set (although the ceiling Curry now seems infinitely distant), and believes that he should be able to occupy a rotation position if he is confident, but for Trey Mann, the first task now is to keep his position on the 15-man roster, and then he can work hard to re-enter the rotation list!
Do you still have to blow the noodles? From this moment on, it is Trey Mann's final exam with the Thunder.