Ladies and gentlemen... Frank Mason III
Frank Mason cooking the ROY in lime green Li-Nings…. hook it to my veins
As someone who is rooting for the Bucks to win the championship, I’ll make an uneasy confession—they’ve made a big mess of the bubble. Though the 🦌 still ended up with the best record in basketball at the end of the regular season, the Bucks went a disappointing 3-5 in Orlando. Eric Bledsoe, who tested positive for COVID a month ago, has had an unfortunately rough go of the restart. A common Budenholzer critique—that he bottles close games with cumbersome plays that inevitably lead to sloppy execution—is not going away anytime soon. Giannis went all Die Walküre on Mo Wagner’s face (I’m so, so sorry) and earned a single game suspension. While Lopez and Middleton have looked great, the Bucks’ singular advantage—a deep and potent bench—isn’t providing the boost it did during the regular season.
As someone who has irresponsibly hooked his emotions to this title run, I am worried. But there was at least one extremely cool aspect of the Bucks bubble experience—Frank Mason’s breakout.
KU fans know that Mason can hoop. He won the Wooden Award and is almost certainly the best performing guard during Self’s tenure, a reign known for… good guard performances. But the beginning of his NBA career flirted with disaster. Drafted 34th overall* by the Sacramento Kings, who are not exactly known for their player development acumen, the odds were already stacked against him. The team’s first round pick was De’Aaron Fox, a taller, much younger player that played the same position with a similar breakneck attitude. (I profiled De’Aaron last year). Coming off the bench, Mason didn’t represent a change of pace. He represented … more pace, but smaller. This is not typically how NBA rotations are built.
*Devonte’ was also selected 34th overall which I think is just beautiful symmetry
Despite the possibility that he was never set up for success in Sacramento, Mason made an impression as a rookie. He shot 36% from three—pretty good, all things considered!—and cracked double figures a handful of times in limited burn. Kings fans observed a plucky underdog who fought hard at both ends despite routinely giving up size, and a fan favorite was born. He would become the centerpiece of the famous (infamous?) Litty Committee, a hyped-up bench group founded by fellow Jayhawk Ben McLemore. For a second rounder on the depth chart behind a prospect like Fox, his rookie season offered a glimpse of Mason as an NBA rotation guard.
But then he came down with plantar fascia. I’m no doctor, but I’ve noticed that, in the NBA, you are on your feet a lot. When the injury happened, I had a bad feeling about it. Foot stuff tends to follow you around—even players at the caliber of Kevin Durant and Joel Embiid will probably never shake concerns about foot injuries that happened earlier in their careers. Plantar fascia isn’t a Jones fracture, or something (please reread my doctor disclaimer) but it’s still a big bummer.
After Mason’s rehab, he came back a different (read: much less effective) player. His eFG% actually went up in his second season in Sacramento, thanks to an improved finishing ability, but he just wasn’t the same player. His three point percentage… well, let’s not even talk about it. He became expendable as Sacramento accumulated a glut of slashing guards, all of whom the Kings were more invested in. Looking at it one way, it was a missed opportunity—playing time simply wouldn’t be available on the league’s more talented rosters, especially for undersized guards who need the ball. When Frank signed a two-way with Milwaukee, virtually ensuring long spells in the G League, it definitely seemed like his best option at the time.
The Bucks are a great organization in the modern pro basketball landscape—they’re known for their patience and their skill development, two qualities that led to the rise of one of the most incredibly dominant players in basketball history. The Bucks didn’t want to take the ball out of Frank’s hands or mold him into a hybrid oddity; they knew what they had and sharpened every element of his skill package, making his game stronger, quicker and more tactical. He won the G League’s MVP award, a staggering accomplishment as the talent tide rises in the NBA’s developmental system. Just look at this bag, folks!
Euros, step-backs, spin moves, shifty and deceptive bursts to the tin—it’s all in there. He shot 43% from three on eight attempts a game, which, come on, that’s awesome. The Mason on display in the bubble highlighted the depth of his improvement in Milwaukee’s organization. This is all “eye test” stuff, but he looked extremely in control and astonishingly sharp with his decision making. The threat of Mason’s drives shifted entire defenses, who simply couldn’t keep him away from the dish. An NBA offense prominently featuring Mason dominating the ball probably won’t ever be a full-time event, but the NBA’s best team knew that Mason would show them something.
Before the restart, it wasn’t explicitly clear that Mason would make Milwaukee’s 15-man roster. COVID-related absences from Bledsoe and Pat Conaughton opened the door, and Mason Kool-Aid-Man’ed through it. It would have been a worthwhile experience had he not even played a lick—these are NBA game checks, after all, no offense to Oshkosh. But Mason has shown that he not only belongs in the NBA full-time, but that he could potentially bring a whole new dimension to the right NBA offense.
When it comes to Frank’s future, it will depend on his shooting—to quote our friend Takeoff, there simply ain’t no way around it. Mason is 5’11’’, and he will always have to compensate for his lack of vertical space by creating incremental space where he can, inch-by-inch, all around the floor. Shooting is simply the most straightforward path to that reality, though we’re seeing a bit of a renaissance of shifty, “we know where he’s going but there’s little we can do to stop it!” guard play. Seeing his shooting numbers tick way up from his sophomore campaign in Sacramento is an encouraging sign.
Though he only played in nine games for the Bucks this season, Frank made his mark. It’s probably going to take a move away from Milwaukee to find the minutes he deserves—Milwaukee’s roster is loaded, and they have too many good players to play. This is not the situation league-wide. So the future feels bright for one of the most beloved Jayhawks of all time.
