Player profile: Charles Mann

Photo Credit:  redandblack.com

Previously:  Kenny Gaines 
Previously:  Marcus Thornton 
Previously:  Yante Maten 
Previously:  Juwan Parker 
Previously:  Nemanja Djurisic 
Previously:  J.J. Frazier 
Previously:  Osahen Iduwe 
Previously:  Cameron Forte 
Previously:  Kenny Paul Geno 
Previously:  Houston Kessler 
Previously:  Dusan Langura 
Previously:  Brandon Young 

Charles Mann

Height:  6'5"
Weight:  215
Position:  PG
Year:  Junior
Role:  El Capitan

Overview:  At the Charleston Classic last year, I happened to sit in front of Charles Mann's mother.  On the monitors in front of us, we saw an advertisement for the upcoming Georgia - Davidson game (ugh), and Mann was used as the face of the Bulldogs for the promo.  I asked her if it was still weird seeing her son like that.  "It's still a little crazy," she told me.

She better get used to it, because this is Charles Mann's team.

Mann has NBA size, and maybe even NBA upside, but he doesn't quite have a full NBA skill-set yet.  He was a 3* recruit with quite a few major offers out of high school, and he was thrown into the fire pretty quickly at Georgia.

It was clear right away that he would round into an impact player, but there have been plenty of rough edges to sand off.  His jumper has never been a weapon, and he has a tendency to get himself in trouble on his drives, leading to turnovers or fouls.  In fact, early foul trouble had him riding pine in the first half of a few key games last year for the Dawgs (the SEC tournament semifinal leaps to mind).

When Charles is right, the offense can really hum.  When he's disengaged, things tend to stagnate quickly.  There are other scorers on this Georgia team, but no one who can initiate the offense quite like him.

Expectations:  I am really curious how Charles spent his summer.  If he spent it working on that jumper, then we can all expect big things from him this year.

We already know he will pile up some points (he was 11th in the nation in free throws attempted).  I suspect that trend will continue.  However, if he can prove to be a legitimate 3-point threat, the court will open up for him, and for Georgia.

Areas for Improvement:  This is probably obvious by now, but the outside jumper needs work.  He doesn't need to be deadly, but he has to force defenses to respect him.  He shot 31% from 3-point range last season (a slightly lower number than his freshman total, but with quite a few more attempts).  That needs to be closer to 35%.

It's also time to occasionally turn drive and shoot into drive and kick.  Getting fouled is a huge part of Mann's game, and there's no reason to try to take that away from him.  However, if he can get defenses to collapse on him, then, depending on rotations, he will have at least one of Kenny Gaines, Nemanja Djurisic, or J.J. Frazier camped behind the 3-point line.  Not a bad plan B if there's no clear path to the bucket.

Finally, it's time to raise the free throw percentage from 70% up to around 80%.  Simply doing that last season would have raised his per-game scoring average almost an entire point.  That's nothing to sneeze at.

2014-15 Stats I Could Get Excited About:  12.4/4.2/4.1 points/rebounds/assists per game.

That's the last player profile.  I'll wrap it all up later, but for now, let's go Charles, and let's go Dawgs!