Clippers' President Lawrence Frank breaks silence on "difficult" Terance Mann trade to Hawks

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Lawrence Frank and the Los Angeles Clippers made one of the tougher decisions they’ve had to make at the 2025 trade deadline when they dealt their longest tenured player, Terance Mann, to the Atlanta Hawks.

From the front office to the players he teamed up with nightly, Mann was a favorite of the organization and one that they had hoped would retire a Clipper.

Clippers President Lawrence Frank opens up on Terance Mann trade

The Clippers made three moves ahead of last Thursday’s trade deadline, with Terance Mann heading to Atlanta as one the headliner. The trade, which also sent Bones Hyland to the Hawks, netted back Bogdan Bogdanovic and three second-round picks.

Having just signed him to a three-year, $47 million extension this past summer, it was never the Clippers’ intentions to trade Mann. But with the swingman falling out of the rotation due to an influx of players with cases to play, the Clippers tried to do right by Mann and send him to a team where he’ll be able to get consistent minutes.

The Atlanta Hawks had long been fans of Mann, as had the Denver Nuggets. Both attempted to trade for Mann, but the Hawks had the pieces the Clippers felt they needed in any move that was separate them from Mann.

The 28-year old spent his first five seasons with the Clippers before the team made the incredibly tough decision to move him. How tough was it? President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank reminded everyone of the franchise’s history with Terance Mann in his post-trade deadline press conference this past weekend.

“Trading Terance was extremely difficult,” Lawrence Frank said. “There’s a reason why Terance is beloved by everyone inside these walls and he’s one of our fan favorites as well. We have a long history with Terance, if you guys remember the story, one of our scouts Leo Papile coached him in AAU, so we have history with Terance since he was basically a 13-year old. All the games we went to go see him play in college, watching him hit the game winner against Virginia Tech in the ACC tournament, then seeing his journey through Portsmouth, the G League showcase, then the combine, seeing a secret workout we had for him in Atlanta. He shot a hard ball man, there were a lot of misses.”

Selected 48th overall in the 2019 NBA Draft, Mann played most of his rookie season with the Agua Caliente Clippers G League team, averaging 15.5 points, 8.7 rebounds, 6.4 assists, and 1.1 steals per game in 20 appearances.

Mann played in the NBA sparingly his rookie season, but impressed many in the final regular season game of the NBA bubble when he finished with 25 points, 14 rebounds, nine assists, and two steals.

Under Tyronn Lue in his second season, Mann put up solid performances more often as he became a more prominent member of the Clippers’ rotation. No performance, however, holds a larger place in current Clippers’ history than the 39-point eruption Terance Mann had in a closeout Game 6 at home against the Utah Jazz to advance to the first Conference Finals in franchise history.

“The belief we had when we drafted him, seeing his development from year one and then the breakout,” Lawrence Frank continued on Terance Mann. “You guys remember in the bubble, that last game against Orlando, where he almost had a triple-double. Everyone talks about the 39-point game to get us to Western Conference finals, but it was just the day-to-day consistency of what he brought, it was a model for basically our player development program. He’s very adaptable, being willing to accept any role. I love him and we all love him. He’s a top-shelf human being, a terrific rotational player and I love him, his mom, so that was really challenging and hard. Very thankful [for him].”

The extension Mann signed last summer doesn’t kick in until next season, meaning he’ll now have both financial security and the ability to play meaningful minutes with a Hawks team trying to weather the Jalen Johnson injury.

In 383 career regular season games with the Clippers, Mann averaged 8.0 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game. His impact, however, went beyond anything that a simple boxscore could display.

All in all, the Clippers traded away Terance Mann, Bones Hyland, Kevin Porter Jr., Mo Bamba, and PJ Tucker. They also welcomed in Bogdan Bogdanovic, Patty Mills, Drew Eubanks, and MarJon Beauchamp.

“We feel really, really good about the deadline and also there’s more moves to be made as well, so I think we’re in a good position,” Lawrence Frank said. “We obviously haven’t been playing very well as of late. We need to play a lot better and very confident we will, but in regards to the deadline, we feel really good about it.”

While it hasn’t been made official yet, the Clippers have also reportedly agreed to a deal with Ben Simmons, who reached a contract buyout with the Brooklyn Nets and will clear waivers on Monday afternoon.

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