Brooklyn Nets 2025-26 Season Grades: Terance Mann

Being an NBA general manager is hard. Sometimes, the moves you make that seem like obvious wins at the time don't work out. Unfortunately for Sean Marks and the Brooklyn Nets, that's exactly what happened with Terance Mann.

The Nets took on Mann's contract in a trade last Summer, also acquiring a first-round pick that turned into Drake Powell. While getting the pick was the sweet part of the deal, there was hope that Mann could be a veteran leader in the locker room. Maybe even that he would play well enough to fetch a draft pick at the trade deadline.

As everyone now knows, things didn't quite break that way for Brooklyn.

Mann appeared in 63 games for the Nets last season, third most on the team. He made 51 starts, the fourth most on the roster. Despite all of those games, he never settled in and found a rhythm. Mann averaged just 7.2 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.0 assists in just over 24 minutes per game. He shot a career-low 45.7% from the field.

While the three assists a night were a career-best for the seventh-year pro, the Nets didn't acquire him to distribute the rock. They brought him in to be a valuable defender with the hopes that he could score in double figures most nights, especially on a team looking to find any offense they could.

Mann posted a career-worst 121.4 defensive rating last season. While it's unfair to put all the blame on him, as Brooklyn's defense was a disaster most of the season, it's still not a great look. He didn't bring a lot of value on either side of the ball, which led to many DNP's down the stretch, as head coach Jordi Fernandez looked to his youth for a spark.

Mann is set to make $15.5 million next season and $16 million the season after that. That's a bad contract that Brooklyn can afford to sit with for now, with all of the young players on the roster. Mann has little to no trade value after a tough season with a rebuilding squad, so the only thing the Nets can do is hope he rebounds next season.

It's hard to imagine Mann struggling next season as much as he did in 2025-26. His NBA track record has proven he can be a reliable three-and-D guard in this league. He didn't show it last season. He'll need to show it early in the Fall. If not, he could find himself glued to the bench once again.

Season grade: D+

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