"Doing all the little things" Chris Mañon is standing out for Golden State Warriors without heavy scoring load

Chris Mañon isn’t naive to his current situation.

The former Vanderbilt wing ran out there on Saturday with a Golden State Warriors jersey on, but over the next few weeks he’ll be auditioning to keep it. He also knows that his path to the reality he desires won’t come as a result of him being the Warriors’ leading scorer.

Mañon–who averaged 6.6 points per game in his lone college season as a power-five player–knows he wasn’t picked up by the Warriors as a score-first piece. He knows that there’s a reason that Warriors’ general manager Michael Dunleavy Jr. took a chance on him, though.

“Doing all the little things that nobody else wants to do,” Mañon said when asked what he wants to do to stand out to teams in a one-on-one interview with Warriors’ beat writer Joseph Dycus that was provided to Vandy on SI. “Obviously my offensive game has to come along, but everything else I try to do to the best of my ability.”

Mañon scored just eight points on Saturday night in the Warriors’ eventual 89-84 win over the Los Angeles Lakers, but recorded three steals and two blocks that brought quantifiable evidence to his impact on the game.

"He's a game changer," Warriors Summer League coach Lainn Wilson said. "He can just impact the game in so many other ways and kind of be a spark where he's causing live-ball turnovers in the open floor and that turns into automatic transition buckets for us. That can really help you flip that game."

Perhaps Mañon’s teammates had higher pedigrees and have more natural scoring ability, but he adjusted seamlessly into his role as a dirty work guy on Saturday.

He was up in former Tennessee standout Dalton Knecht’s grill when the high-profile NBA sophomore tried to get in rhythm. He was around the ball. His toughness was being lauded by the Warriors’ announcers. He was a factor in a game that his college numbers indicated he shouldn’t be on the floor for.

“I try to impact the game whatever way I can,” Mañon said. “Most nights I think I’m capable of guarding the other team’s best player and being disruptive at all times. Whenever I can get deflections or grab a loose ball, or dive on the floor, get a loose ball, I try to do it.”

Mañon’s biggest play of the night came in transition as he trailed on a third-quarter fastbreak, cocked it back and threw down a dunk over a defender to give the Warriors a lead. It was as flashy of a play as a player in Mañon’s role could’ve had.

Yet, as he sat around the tunnel and addressed his performance postgame with the media, it appeared the reality of what reaching his ultimate goal was going to take set in. As much as the former Vanderbilt wing reflected on his third-quarter dunk, he sat there and thought about one he missed late in the second half. “I wish I had it back,” he said.

Mañon knows as well as anyone that as an undrafted free agent, this is going to take more than one good night. There’s going to be a small margin for error here despite the Warriors’ affinity for him pre draft. He’s gotta bring it. He’s gotta do it his way.

Sprinting to the corner quick, “yup.” Being active with your hands, “yep.”

“I try to do everything from rebounding, getting steals, getting blocks,” Mañon said. “Being disruptive and obviously having active hands [is what I do well], following the game plan to a tee, just being very detail oriented. I try to do everything.”

Keep doing everything and that audition may turn into more than that.