Maybe Doc was onto something?

When the Clippers traded point guard Eric Bledsoe to Portland on Feb. 4, it meant Reggie Jackson was the only player on their roster with significant experience as a primary ball-handler – well, beside Terance Mann.

Thank former Clippers coach Doc Rivers for that.

Under Rivers, Mann, now a the third-year wing– er, third-year basketball player? – lined up at point guard during his rookie season despite not having played the position in his four years at Florida State.

“When we drafted him, we thought he was a point guard,” Rivers said before Mann’s first NBA season, saying the Clippers were enamored by his 6-foot-5 length at the position.

“I was a non-point guard point guard,” Rivers said then. “I never played point guard in my life. I got drafted and (Coach) Mike Fratello, on the phone, says, ‘You’re a point guard.’ And I said, ‘I’m good with that, I’m in the NBA right?’ That’s all you care about. That’s Terance. He’s never played the position, but he’s always been a point guard. He just didn’t know it. Now he knows it.”

But when Tyronn Lue – an NBA point guard for 11 seasons – took the reins last season, he envisioned a different role for Mann, taking much of the ball-handling burden from him and passing it onto superstars Paul George and Kawhi Leonard (who both averaged a career-high 5.2 assists per game in 2020-21).

Mann, meanwhile, was instructed to go have fun, be free.

“With Terance, the biggest thing is just turning him loose, just letting him be a basketball player,” Lue said last March. “Not trying to make him a point guard, even though he has great passing ability. I think if you go to the NBA from college never playing the position, I think he did a lot of thinking on the floor, just trying to play mistake-free basketball.

“Now we’ve got him off the basketball, he’s able to rebound and push and attack off the second side, he’s able to create and just play basketball and play free and I think that’s helped with his development as well.”

Not coincidentally, Mann had a breakthrough that earned him a two-year, $22 million extension. He played nearly 19 minutes per game in the regular season and then delivered in the playoffs, including his 39-point flag-planting eruption against Utah in Game 6 of the Clippers’ second-round series that launched them into the Western Conference finals for the first time.

But after the Clippers traded Bledsoe, Lue had little choice but to return more of the ball-handling responsibilities to Mann: “Doc had him playing backup point guard when he was here, so he has some experience doing it. We’re just gonna have to help him out; it’s gonna take a little time for him, we understand that.”

It hasn’t taken Mann – the coach’s kid who now has two-plus seasons of rich, varied NBA experience his credit – any time to adjust to his newish responsibilities.

In the four games since the trade, the 25-year-old from Lowell, Mass., is averaging 13.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.8 steals and shooting 51.2%. (In 53 games before that, his averages: 10 points on 47.6% shooting, 5 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 0.6 steals.)

“I’m comfortable playing the position,” Mann said, via Zoom, after the Clippers’ 99-97 victory in Dallas on Saturday, when he finished with 21 points on 9-for-15 shooting, nine rebounds, two assists, a steal and credit for goading Luka Doncic into a double-technical with 3:30 to play.

T-MANN IS COOKIN’ TONIGHT.

@BallySportWest | @terance_mann pic.twitter.com/CO0vr1ns6B

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) February 13, 2022

“When I’m out there, I’m feeling like I have no lapses,” Mann said. “I like the ball, I like being able to rebound and push it, and getting downhill and that’s exactly what I did tonight.”

Mann’s usage rate (the percentage of team’s plays he was involved) in the past four games is up to 18.5% from 14.8% — a development his teammates are cheering.

Related Articles

“Actually, honestly, I love T-Mann … at the point,” Marcus Morris Sr. said. “His decision-making is great, he’s got great size, he can defend and he knows the game. I think that’s his primary position.”

Lue loves it too, actually, noting that now it seems to be the extra responsibility that’s unburdening Mann as the Clippers navigate a gauntlet of Western Conference playoff teams – a challenging stretch that continues Monday at home against second-place Golden State and then Tuesday in Phoenix against the first-place Suns.

“He doesn’t have to press and think he has to make a shot or make a play every time he touches it, because a lot of times he’s not one of the primary scorers,” Lue said. “So having the ball in his hands more allows him to play more free and be able to attack more and be able to play more, I guess I would say under control, where he doesn’t have to press to get shots or have the ball in his hands.

“He’s been doing a great job with it.”

WARRIORS (42-15) at CLIPPERS (28-30)

When: Monday, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Crypto.com Arena

TV/Radio: Bally Sports SoCal, NBA TV / 570 AM

There goes that Mann.

@BallySportWest | @terance_mann pic.twitter.com/3QrmLQOI4v

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) February 13, 2022

More fireworks from Terance Mann and Luka Doncic. pic.twitter.com/DhbxuTUxqp

— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) February 13, 2022

Double-staggered action for Luke Kennard, with Covington and Coffey screening for him. He curls inside.

When Terance Mann’s defender (DFS) turns his head, Mann takes advantage with the back-cut. Great read by both Kennard-Mann pic.twitter.com/K4aEWaPq7b

— Shane Young (@YoungNBA) February 11, 2022