A Royal Pain
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What’s Your Role?: Frank Mason III

By Rafe Wong

SACRAMENTO, CA - JUNE 24: The Sacramento Kings 2017 Draft Pick Frank Mason III addresses the media on June 24, 2017 at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)
SACRAMENTO, CA - JUNE 24: The Sacramento Kings 2017 Draft Pick Frank Mason III addresses the media on June 24, 2017 at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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What kind of role will Frank Mason III have with the Sacramento Kings this upcoming season?

A Royal Pain continues its series where we predict the type of roles each player on the Sacramento Kings’ roster will play in this upcoming year. The player we will analyze in this piece is Frank Mason III who the Kings recently selected in the second round of the NBA draft.

Path To Current Minutes

The Kings are loaded at the point guard position, but this is unfortunate for Mason. The former Jayhawk seems to be an NBA-ready player at the moment, but he has teammates like George Hill and De’Aaron Fox that play the same position as himself. Hill will most likely earn the starting job and the bulk of the point guard minutes while Fox comes in second. This leaves Mason as the third-string facilitator.

Although Mason may be placed as the third point guard on the depth chart, I still foresee him getting some runtime on the court this season. Throughout the Kings’ campaign, there’s a good chance that Dave Joerger will play around with different lineups. Some of these lineups could consist of two point guards. Don’t be surprised during the season if you see Mason playing with either Hill or Fox on the court. Like I mentioned above, the Kings have great talent at the point guard spot, so Joerger will make sure to utilize all that talent this upcoming season.

Ways To Increase Minutes

There’s a good argument that Mason could get promoted as the season goes on. Most likely, Mason won’t be taking many minutes away from Hill, but he certainly can upgrade over Fox for a bigger role.

Even though the Kings selected Fox earlier than Mason in this year’s draft, there is a good argument Mason is more NBA-ready than the Kentucky speedster. If Fox experiences growing pains while Mason thrives during the season, Joerger will award Mason with more playing time.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I foresee Mason being granted a small role to start the season. But with that being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mason gets promoted as the year goes on.

In his final year with the Kansas Jayhawks, Mason had an incredible campaign which consisted of him leading his team to the Elite Eight Round of the March Madness Tournament and being awarded the John Wooden Award, the top individual honor for a college basketball player.

Even though Mason was selected 34th overall in the draft, he is one of the more NBA-ready players in his rookie class. So if he does end up being more effective than Fox this season, it wouldn’t be a big shock, in my opinion.

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