Q. You look a little bigger. What did you do in the off-season? What did you focus on?
TRE MANN: First of all, I appreciate that. That was the main focus, get stronger, getting bigger, putting some more weight on.
But the biggest thing for me was eating the right things, eating three meals a day and then taking my protein at night, so that's what I did. Plus the weightlifting I did with AP and our staff, but that was really it, eating three times and then protein and lifts.
Q. I've got to ask about your meals. What were you eating to try to help yourself in the process?
TRE MANN: I was taking everything that the chefs cooked for us, so whatever was on the menu that day. I don't know if it was steak sometimes, chicken, broccoli, asparagus, rice, whatever the chefs cooked for us, that's what I took home, and I just ate that.
Q. You didn't have to eat extra portions? It was just eating good?
TRE MANN: They got like a chart that tells us if they're trying to gain how much we should eat. If we're trying to lose, maintain, things like that. I just tried to take as much as I could.
Q. Cheeseburgers generally kick it up.
TRE MANN: Did a little bit of that, too. (Laughter).
Q. What is the most significant aspect of your game that you improved on going into the season?
TRE MANN: Just playing more efficient, whether that be shooting, play making, making the right reads, just playing more efficient this year.
Q. You can obviously generate buckets for yourself, but I think an underrated part of your game is also facilitating for others. In the off-season without pickup, whatever it might be, how do you improve as a passer?
TRE MANN: My trainer did a good job with that by trying to put me in game realistic situations like the best he could. He was creative, came off of screens when I had three guys guarding me, trying to make the best read, and as quick as possible because you don't really have a lot of time.
Just doing stuff like that, having two guys defend me, me going through pick-and-rolls, me having to find the right guy, like reading the defense. As much as I did that, like I did that as much as I could really.
Q. What's your assessment of the rookie class so far?
TRE MANN: They're great guys off the court, and on the court I love playing with them. They all bring something different to the table. I think they're going to help us out a lot this year.
Q. Two guys have the same name, two of your rookies. Was that confusing for you guys? What are the communication challenges or were they having two rookies with the same name?
TRE MANN: I'm not going to lie, it was kind of tough at first because I was trying to call both of them J-Will, and J-Dub was like, no, I'm J-Dub, I'm J-Will. We was just in the back talking about us now. I was like, how about if I call you Will J and him J-Will and he's like, no, because it sounds like Little J. I'm like, okay, I'll call him Big J and you Little J, and he was getting mad. Now I know both of their names, it's J-Dub and J-Will. It's easy now.
Q. Can you talk a little bit about how you structured your off-season as far as time away from Oklahoma City, time in Oklahoma City? Obviously Summer League, but how you broke up the time because it was your first off-season but was actually a true long NBA off-season?
TRE MANN: Yeah, it was a long off-season, but I kind of tried not to move around a lot. I wanted to be with the same trainers as much as I could. I wasn't in OKC, I was in Miami. I would go to Miami for a week, come back to OKC for a couple days, work out, then go back to Miami and just do it like that, but I kind of wanted to stay with the same trainers, the same people.
Q. What is your favorite aspect of getting a tattoo? And do you care to give your tattoo artist a shout-out?
TRE MANN: Oh, yeah, I'm going to give my guy a shout-out right now. A shout-out to Joe, Works By Joe on Instagram. He did my whole sleeve, and then he did the top of my chest piece.
But the favorite part for me is just seeing it after. It's painful going through it, the long hours, but seeing it after and seeing how it's coming together, that's my favorite part.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports