Report: Bucks Sign Frank Mason III To Two-Way Deal

We rounded up the most relevant recent Milwaukee Bucks news yesterday, thinking that it was going to be a slow weekend. And while the newest development isn’t a “STOP THE PRESSES” event, it’s still pretty interesting!

Frank Mason III, 25, spent the last two seasons with the Sacramento Kings after being selected with the 34th overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. Mason is a relatively small point guard (5’11”, 190 lbs.) who accumulated 90 real-life NBA games over those two seasons, averaging nearly 16 minutes across that span.

His shooting splits at the NBA level are concerning (0.392/0.300/0.773), but he was an excellent shooter across his four years at Kansas (0.454/0.420/0.761). Most of his three pointers are above the break (only 10.0% of his career NBA threes were from the corners), and he seems to have some midrange shot-making ability. Furthermore, he seems to have at least halfway-decent playmaking chops (career AST% of 23.8 vs. career TOV% of 13.9), and his career usage (22.4%) seems like a good fit in the Milwaukee system. If you want to see what he can do, check out his highlights from the 2017 NCAA Tournament and his 2018-19 reel from the Kings.

Zooming out a bit, combined with the reported two-way contract signed by Cameron Reynolds yesterday, this presents an interesting situation for last year’s holdover, Bonzie Colson. Colson, 23, has originally been thought to remain with the Bucks and Wisconsin Herd on a two-way deal through this season, but since each NBA team only gets a pair of these two-way slots, it appears that Colson may be headed elsewhere. There is some speculation that he may have earned an NBA roster spot, even with the Bucks, after a decent showing in the Las Vegas Summer League, and Milwaukee does have a pair of openings on the 15-man roster still...

As always, we’ll have to see what happens. In the meantime, the signing of Mason is inarguably positive in terms of value, since he’s an NBA-level player by virtue of his time in Sacramento. Mason also provides the Bucks a bit of emergency depth at point guard, much like Xavier Munford before him and Tim Frazier last year (though Frazier made the regular roster and has since moved on to join the Detroit Pistons). Mason is slight of frame but should give both the Bucks and the Herd valuable contributions, so I applaud Jon Horst and the front office for adding him.

What do you think? Will Mason make a difference for the Bucks this year? Will he even get an opportunity? Was there someone else better suited for this two-way slot? Let us know in the comments!