213hoops.com
2025 Clippers Exit Interviews: Terance Mann
The Clippers’ 2025 season is now in the rearview, which means it’s time to start up exit interviews for all of the players who had at least somewhat meaningful roles on the team. First up, departed fan favorite Terance Mann.
Basic Information
Height: 6’5
Weight: 215 pounds
Position: Shooting Guard/Small Forward/Power Forward
Age: 28
Years in NBA: 6
Key Regular Season Stats (for Clippers): 6.0 points, 1.6 assists, 2.9 rebounds, 0.8 steals, and 0.7 turnovers in 19.8 minutes per game across 37 games played (12 starts) on 44.6/34.7/71.9 (2.0 3PA and 0.9 FTA) shooting splits (53.3 True Shooting)
Expectations
After a 2024 season where Terance served as a starter almost
the entire season, and fresh off a major contract extension right before
training camp, it was expected that Terance would have a major role on the 2025
Clippers. With Kawhi out to start the season and a bunch of new faces on the
roster, Terance’s status as the second-longest tenured Clipper and ability to
serve in a variety of roles seemed to place him as a prime candidate for a
starting role on a makeshift roster. Fans probably assumed he would remain the
starting “shooting guard”, as he had in 2024, alongside James Harden, Ivica
Zubac, Derrick Jones Jr., and someone else. Regardless, Terance was seemingly
all set for a consistent, key role.
Reality
Terance did in fact begin the 2025 season as a starter – but at small forward, not shooting guard. Norm Powell, somewhat unexpectedly, ran away with the starting job in training camp, rounding out the rest of the expected starting five. Terance had played plenty of small forward previously in his career, so his serving as the starter at that role didn’t seem like too much of an adjustment. And maybe it really wasn’t, but Terance just started out the year slowly. Very slowly.
In the first 10 games of the season, Terance averaged just 5.1 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 1.8 assists while shooting a mere 16.6% from three (3-18). He was hesitant on offense and the defense was only good, not great. He started one more game against the Thunder, during which he played less than 18 minutes. After that, Kris Dunn was inserted into the starting lineup in his place. Terance started just one more game the rest of his Clippers’ tenure.
Terance seemed to be turning things around in mid-late November coming off the bench, with several strong performances in wins over the Warriors, Sixers, and Nuggets in that span. Unfortunately, Terance got injured in the December 3 win over the Blazers, and missed the rest of December. When he returned, the Clippers’ rotation was far more set in stone, with Dunn’s defense, Amir’s shooting, and Kevin Porter Jr.’s creation all being valued heavily by Ty Lue. Terance got two DNP-CDs in his first seven games back, player under 10 minutes in two more, and played over 20 minutes just once (in a blowout).
Terance then had a stretch where he played in nine straight games, but only had standout performances in the first two of those. He remained shaky and unsure of himself on offense, and Ty continued to keep his minutes mostly in the 10-20 minute range. Terance’s hold on a rotation spot certainly seemed to be slipping, and then, on the day of the trade deadline, Thursday February 6, he was traded to the Hawks out of the blue for Bogdan Bogdanovic and three second-round picks. Terance Mann’s tenure, which began at the start of the 213 era in the 2019 Draft, abruptly ended, as the Clippers continued to turn over their roster.
Future with Clippers
It’s not impossible that Terance ends up back on the Clippers. There didn’t seem to be any bad blood on either side on the way out, with the trade appearing purely transactional for the Clippers and with Terance going to a relatively solid situation in Atlanta. Terance has the three years left on his extension and might well get a contract after that, so it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility he returns to the Clippers someday. But considering that contract will probably be tough to move unless he plays a lot better (in which case Atlanta would presumably want to keep him), and that the Clippers traded him to get out of that contract, it’s tough to see him return to the Clips over the next three years.
Even if he never comes back to the Clippers, I’m sure Clippers fans will remember Terance fondly in years to come. He may have been overvalued by the organization (they assuredly could have received far more for him in a trade in any of the previous three years), but he was a fan favorite who was a key piece to some of the best Clippers’ teams in franchise history. In particular, Terance’s Game 6 performance against the Jazz in the 2021 Playoffs to get the Clippers to their first ever Conference Finals will live in Clippers’ lore forever. It’s just a shame the end to his Clippers’ tenure was so unceremonious and that Terance never quite developed in the way that fans hoped he would after that incredible playoff run.