Wizards' Tre Mann Unlikely to Enjoy Revenge Game in Hornets Return

The Washington Wizards seem to run into the Charlotte Hornets more frequently than anyone else league-wide. Their usual meet-ups at annual NBA Draft lotteries have quickly transitioned into showdowns between two of the Eastern Conference's deeper up-and-comers, though they've both greatly-altered their looks over the last few months.

While the Wizards added Trae Young, Anthony Davis and leadoff draft prospect AJ Dybantsa to their ship, the Hornets opted to re-set their still-inspiring timeline. Out went LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges in favor of an enhanced focus on Kon Knueppel and Brandon Miller, with a few other down-the-line veterans similarly-moving on from Charlotte in a slew of standard offseason lineup shuffles.

Tre Mann is set to potentially appear in Monday's Wizards-Hornets game, the first of several such inter-divisional matchups lining this week, though the longtime Hornets scorer will be sitting on the side of the visitors. Following a slew of offseason transactions as a salaried throw-in, the 25-year-old finds himself embedded in a deep lineup that's already padded with plenty of talented guards in Young, Tre Johnson and Bub Carrington, a situation that hasn't yet resulted in much early success for Mann.

He's been buried in Washington, accumulating just one regular season appearance in the Wizards' threads- a 58-second-long check-in during the final minute of the squad's 112-102 loss to the Toronto Raptors last week. Mann would be a heartfelt inclusion in the Wizards' game plan against the Hornets, but recent trends don't support any sudden rotation-upending shifts to account for the fairly-redundant point guard.

Mann's Uphill Battle to Minutes

Now, in the event of Young going down, it's hard not to consider Mann as a panic-sub. He's one of the more comfortable ball-handlers on the team and actually capable of balancing tough perimeter shot-making with occasional paint touches. As Washington learned from the dark rebuilding years pre-Young, such attributes are tough to come by among playable role players.

Unfortunately for Mann, Young is usually quote durable, and plenty's changed since the Wizards first-committed to starting fresh. Both Carrington and Johnson have started the season strong, offering the necessary energetic bailout shooting performances to help spell the bench minutes.

They're a combined 12/27 as the primary guards off out of the second unit, good for a 44.4% clip on some quick, gutsy looks from outside.

And unlike Young- or Mann, for that matter- they've each been aggressive on defense, crowding their assignments' space with active hands. With the wing depth that Washington's already armed with, it's been hard to advocate for much of anyone else eking out any minutes outside of Khris Middleton's slow succumbing to Will Riley.

For all we know, Mann may be a helpful deployment behind the scenes in cosigning Knueppel's tendencies or Charlotte head coach Charles Lee's notable habits, but it's hard to see the 2-1 Wizards, fresh off of another win that vindicated their development-first priorities, making significant time for the journeyman guard in his first post-trade run in with the Hornets.

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