Former Florida guard Tre Mann has seen his stock improve tremendously since he almost single-handedly led the Gators through the postseason. The team got knocked out in the second round, but Mann averaged 21.3 points per game in the SEC and NCAA Tournaments, improving upon his already impressive season average of 16.
Unsurprisingly, Mann made the decision to enter the NBA draft with an agent after the season, forfeiting his remaining college eligibility with the Gators in the process. He’s expected to end a drought of Florida players being drafted into the NBA that dates back to 2013. He’s also very likely to be the first UF first-round pick since Bradley Beal went third overall in 2012.
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But where exactly will Mann land? There’s not exactly a clear consensus. Some mock drafts show the former five-star recruit from The Villages landing near the tail end of the lottery, while others show him falling deeper into the first round. The only consistency is that most prognosticators don’t expect Mann to fall beyond the first 30 picks.
The draft order is far from set, as the NBA playoff field was only finalized with Golden State’s loss to Memphis on Friday night in the eight-seed play-in game. We now know which teams will be in the lottery, but that’s about it. But based on current projections, the latest mock draft from ESPN’s Jonathan Givony shows Mann falling out of the lottery to the Atlanta Hawks with the 19th pick.
Finding a combo guard who can play on or off the ball and complement star point guard Trae Young could very well be a priority for the Hawks. Mann is a promising pick-and-roll ball handler whose size and 40% 3-point shooting will allow him to play in a variety of lineup configurations.
This would be an interesting spot for Mann. As Givony mentions, the Hawks already have one of the best up-and-coming guards in Trae Young, who (as his name suggests) is only 22. Young primarily runs the point, and successfully, at that. He’s averaging over 25 points per game in 2020-21 and led the Hawks to a No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Adding Mann to the equation would give Atlanta quite a formidable backcourt, but it would be interesting to see how he and Young would coexist considering they’re both facilitators.
NEXT: Were any other Gators mentioned?