Philadelphia 76ers: Frank Mason III is the perfect 18th man

On Friday, January 15, Philadelphia 76ers fan the world over cheered in unison as the dynamic duo of Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania announced in unison that the NBA was considering expanding out rosters to 18 with the addition of a third two-way contract.

And honestly, it’s about darn time.

Since having the very fibers of the NBA rocked by a string of cancellations and on-court embarrassment initially kicked off by Seth Curry‘s positive COVID-diagnosis, the league has been a mess.

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While adding one more player won’t keep every scheduled game on the books – as one more player won’t matter when a team like the Washington Wizards has nine players and counting in COVID health and safety protocol – it should help to avoid contests like the ‘Seven Sixers‘ game versus Denver.

But who could the Sixers sign to this hypothetical contract? With familiar faces like Marial Shayok already signed overseas and other notable players like Admiral Schofield selected in the 2020-21 G-League draft, there are only so many players left to sign.

*sigh* If only the Sixers had a player already under contract somewhere in their organization with three or fewer seasons under their belt and an appreciable set of skills.

Frank Mason should go from G-League MVP to the Philadelphia 76ers 18th man.

Measuring in at 5-foot-11, 190 pounds, Frank Mason III is one of the most decorated college basketball players we’ve seen in recent memory.

Don’t believe me? Well, allow me to present you with a selected list of his collegiate accomplishments:

NCAA All-Region, 2016-17 AP Player of the Year, a Consensus All-American, a Wooden Award winner, a Naismith Award winner, the 2016-17 Big 12 Player of the Year, a member of the Big 12 All-Defense team, and a three-time All-Big 12 performer.

Yeah, I’d say that’s a lot.

A four-year contributor for Bill Self’s Kansas Jayhawks, Mason III is an old-school floor general. He ran the show for three straight Big 12 regular season champions and even capped off his senior season by averaging 20.9 points and 5.2 assists in 36.1 minutes of action a night.

While this didn’t directly correlate to draft stock, as Mason was ultimately selected by the Sacramento Kings with the fourth pick in the second round of the 2017 NBA Draft, it surely helped to keep the young guard engaged while his playing time fluctuated in Sactown. Mason was a part-time player during his rookie season playing off of two top-3 draft picks (hmm, I wonder who?), so he wasn’t too unfamiliar with having to wait his turn to prove his worth.

That sentiment assumingly continued on when the Kings opted to waive Mason two years into his rookie contract in 2019. Instead of signing with a bad team with a few minutes up for grabs as a bench point guard – I’m looking at you, the 2019-20 New York Knicks – Mason signed a two-way contract with the Milwaukee Bucks and went on to win G-League MVP off a 26.4 points, 5.0 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game stat line.

And mere hours before the Philadelphia 76ers trimmed their roster down to its opening day size – literally – the front office brought in Mason on an Exhibit 10 contract to effectively secure his G-League rights for the forthcoming season.

Now sure, could the Delaware Blue Coats use Mason in their mini Disney World Bubble? Totally. Mason is easily the best, the most experienced, and most “NBA Ready” prospect on the team, excluding two-way contract holders Dakota Mathias and “BBall” Paul Reed. If Mason is running the show for Connor Johnson’s squad down in Delaware, they will surely have a chance in every game regardless of opponent.

But if the Sixers get a chance to add the 18th man, something tells me Johnson and company will happily surrender Mason’s services for the good of the franchise.

With only one true blue prototypical point guard on the roster in Tyrese Maxey, Mason could serve as a vital cog in Doc Rivers‘ offense when his number is called. He can play alongside Shake Milton either off-ball or on, he can fill a small-ball point guard role when Ben Simmons kicks it to the frontcourt for minutes at power forward, and he could conceivably even play alongside Maxey if need be, as both played in two point guard systems during their time in college.

Mason also played alongside a kinda fringe, obscure player you may have heard of, Joel Embiid, who I think is still a member of the Philadelphia 76ers, but I have to check. Though it’s been well over half a decade since the two former Jayhawks shared the court, I imagine the big guy wouldn’t mind having another Lawrence prospect on in the other red, white, and blue – especially if he can make plays like this moving forward.

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Do the Philadelphia 76ers need another point guard to fill out their roster? No, what they really need is a player like P.J. Tucker to fill out their frontcourt and give the team some much-needed 3 point shooting from the four-five spot (more on that here). But unfortunately, there really isn’t an ideal player with that set of skills just sitting on the street waiting for a contract. But what they do have already in-house is an experienced point guard coming off the best season in his young basketball playing career who just so happens to have played a quarter of his college basketball alongside the team’s best player. I’d certainly settle for his addition to the roster if the opportunity becomes available, especially since such a player would only see action in emergency and/or garbage situations anyway. If Doc Rivers likes Derrick Walton, he’s going to love Frank Mason III.