Terance Mann has the Clippers rolling after wins against the Lakers and Rockets
Mann has been the most consistent player for the 32-31 8th seed Clippers this year and has been on a roll in his last 10 games
Advanced statistics used in this article are from StatMuse.com, ESPN.com, and NBA.com.
After his 39 point game in a crucial Game 6 against the Jazz to clinch a trip to the Western Conference Finals last season, Terance Mann immediately became a household name for Clippers nation and was expected to take a huge leap this season with increased minutes and usage.
Mann went from averaging just over 18 minutes per game last season to just under 30 minutes per game this season, but his usage percentage only increased by .3 percent from 15.1 to 15.4, meaning Mann isn’t involved in a large percentage of offensive plays despite him being on the floor for 30 minutes per game.
Although Mann started off the year slow and hasn’t been consistent with his scoring all year (10.7 points per game on the season), he has been on a roll in the last ten games putting the Clippers on his back. Mann scored 19 points, with 3 steals and 10 rebounds in Friday night’s win over the Lakers, and had 9 points with 2 steals and 8 rebounds in a 99-98 victory against the Rockets on Sunday night as well.
In fact, Mann is averaging 13.4 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 1.6 steals with an outstanding eFG% of 57.1 and an even better TS% of 58.9 over his past ten games. Even though Mann isn’t the best scorer on the Clippers, he is the most consistent two-way player on the team, as he is very efficient on offense and a menace on defense.
Mann’s eFG% on the season is 54.3 and his TS% is 56.9, while he is averaging just under 1 steal per game with a very good defensive rating of 110.6 this season as well. He is also one of the best rebounding guards in the NBA at 5.3 rebounds per game this year.
Overall, Mann is the spark plug of this team, and when he is scoring a lot while playing his usual elite on-ball defense, the Clippers are winning the majority of their games and playing with a lot of confidence.
The Clippers should rely more on Mann on the offensive end and increase his usage percentage since Mann was very effective at 18 minutes per game with a usage percentage of 15.1 last season. That begs the question of why wouldn’t Mann be effective at 30 minutes per game with a much higher usage percentage since he was so effective last season?
In fact, the Clippers are an impressive 13-4 on the year when Terrance Mann scores 15 or more points, and are 21-10 on the year when Terrance Mann scores 10 or more points, meaning when he touches the ball as he should on the offensive end, the Clippers win games. Plain and simple.
Terrance Mann has scored 10 or more points in 6 of his last 10 games and 15 or more points in 4 of his last 10 games. In the Rockets game last night, Mann only scored 9 points, but it wasn’t because he was missing shots, but instead, because he only shot the ball 5 times and again wasn’t involved at all on the offensive end.
Since the Clippers have won the majority of their games when Mann is scoring a lot and is heavily involved in the offense, Ty Lue HAS to establish Mann as one of the top options on the offensive end if the Clippers want to continue to rise in the Western Conference standings.
Lue has been the coach of the year so far in my opinion, with a top 7 defense and a 32-31 record without his two best players in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. However, his offensive playcalling has sometimes been questionable, not allowing certain players in his offense to get into rhythms.
Avoiding a play-in tournament would be nice for the Clippers, and they have a good chance at winning most of the rest of their games if they involve Mann in more of the offense and increase his usage percentage drastically. I think the coach of the year should be capable of that right?