Import Report: MVP Jones the final piece to the Wildcats puzzle

• Import guard Mason Jones was the final signing to complete the Perth Wildcats roster for NBL26
• He was the 2025 G League Finals MVP with the Stockton Kings
• Jones averaged 23.6ppg, 7.8apg and 5rpg in the G League last season

With an offseason that tipped-off with the departure of five-time NBL MVP Bryce Cotton, the Perth Wildcats have had every subsequent move picked apart by a demanding and distrustful Red Army — be it uniforms, slogans or signings.

Outside of losing the league’s best player, things panned out positively on all fronts for the Wildcats and their roster, locking up imports Dylan Windler and Kristian Doolittle, escaping losing young gun Ben Henshall to the college ranks, and navigating a limited local big market to secure the services of Jo Lual-Acuil. All good results, but the job wasn’t done until they replaced the import guard spot — one they’ve eventually secured with the services of Mason Jones.

It was an ultra-patient process that endured endless speculation, outlasted the Blitz and tested fans faith, but the result has been one of the most exciting player additions league wide.

BASKETBALL BACKGROUND

After a year of dominating junior college competing for Connors State College, Mason Jones spent two years in the Division 1 system with the Arkansas Razorbacks. As a junior, Jones was one of the most prolific offensive players in college basketball, averaging 22 points per game (eighth highest in the NCAA). He would go on to declare for the 2020 NBA Draft.

Since turning professional, Jones has spent the majority of his career plying his trade in the US, bouncing between the NBA and NBA G League on a series of two-way contract opportunities with the Houston Rockets, Philadelphia 76ers, LA Lakers and Sacramento Kings.

Beyond clocking over 450 NBA minutes across those opportunities, Jones time in the G League has seen him consolidate himself as one of the most reputable scorers in the competition, finishing top 10 in points per game in three out of his four seasons. Fascinatingly, Jones also took a big leap in his playmaking figures, having averaged 6.5 assists per game over his G League career, including 7.5 assists per game across the last two seasons.

Jones’ signing with the Perth Wildcats marks his second international opportunity, having played for Darüşşafaka in the Turkish BSL for a short eight-game stint across BSL (League) and BCL (Championship) play to start the team’s season.

AN INSIGHT INTO HIS GAME

With Bryce Cotton defecting to Adelaide, there was a gaping chasm on the Wildcats roster for high volume offensive initiation, and Jones’ numbers immediately suggest someone who can fill that void.

While Jones’ usage rate doesn’t quite equal Cotton’s league-high one, his own command of the rock is in the ball-park of most primary scorers league wide. Watching the tape, we can see Jones likes the ball in a lot of similar spots to Cotton — he hunts his shot out of pick and roll and can create and make jumpers off the dribble.

The process is very different, however — where Cotton outmatches opponents with a lethal first step and quick rising jumper, Jones is less of a run and jump athlete, and gets to his spots with size and strength.

Those latter qualities make Jones a head of steam in transition, too, where he’s able to initiate contact and get to the rim if there’s only a guard ahead for defensive resistance, something we see reflected in his high rate of transition usage above.

That prolific transition rate may also be part of the reason that Jones’ appeared to have struggled in his short stint in Turkey. It might be too generous to completely hand wave away his underwhelming BSL statistics, but the more deliberate pace of play and structured offence felt like a bad fit for Jones’ on-ball play, making him in theory a much better fit in the NBL.

One thing we’re unlikely to see Mason Jones do is run around screens and tiring out opponents, something Cotton did with relentless off-ball activity, coming across as more of a standard spot-up threat and straight line driver. That doesn’t make his off-ball impact unnoteworthy though — Jones has been a consistently elite outside scorer, shooting 42.7% from three on 6.7 three point attempts across his four G League seasons, never dipping below 40%. The fact that so many of his attempts come pulling up in transition or off his own dribble creation make this even more remarkable, but it also demonstrates his ability to be a threat off other offensive options.

One of the big questions that many are trying to decipher is whether Jones is, or can be, a point guard. Jones’ 3.1 assists per game over two seasons at Arkansas didn’t indicate as much, but we’ve seen a big jump in playmaking numbers while in the G League (6.5 apg). It’s evident that Jones has improved his aptitude, willingness or both as a facilitator, but his reputation so far in his career has been as a wing, with his assists more a byproduct of his high usage and scoring gravity than a highly sophisticated passing game.

The distinction may not be of much interest to Perth, however, who have seemed to favour size in the backcourt over recent years, evidenced by the signing of Tai Webster in past seasons. We may come to find that Jones is not a natural point guard as we come to define them, but he certainly fits into the team’s offensive hierarchy as the likely primary ball-handler, and they believe in his ability to run the offense well enough to entrust the ball in his hands.

Defensively, Jones has a reputation of not tipping the needle much in either direction. Given his physical profile, he appears more adept at guarding wings with his size and strength than the league’s shiftier headline point guards.

HIS FIT WITH THE WILDCATS

Whether a traditional point guard or not, Jones appears to be the main ball carrier for this Perth team. On a roster where the other rotational guards are Sunday Dech, Elijah Pepper and Ben Henshall, there’s no traditional point guard in the rotation, and so Dech feels like the best complement as a more ancillary off-guard. This works on both ends of the floor too, where I could see Dech guarding a lot of point guards, and Jones the twos or even threes.

While that fit seems tenable, it’ll be fascinating to see how the rest of the backcourt minutes shape up, what guard combinations we see, and to what effect. With Pepper and Henshall being two volume, offensively geared threats themselves, they don’t feel like natural fits with Jones, nor each other.

Elite shooting is always a good thing, but combined with the floor spacing of Windler, as well as a combination of Henshall, Pepper, Dech or Mayen, Lual-Acuil should be allowed a wonderful amount of floor spacing for him to operate in the post.

Speaking of Windler and Perth’s other import, Kristian Doolittle, the addition of Jones should allow both to slide back into more ancillary roles. There’s been discussion from Windler about unlearning his ‘NBA role’ and being a little less gun-shy as a scorer, which should still stand, but we may see Doolittle in particular fall back into a more defence-first, offensive-connector role down the other end as a result of the teams firepower.

With a focus on positional size roster wide, the Wildcats offensive focus may heavily evolve game to game based on identifying and exposing the best mismatches.

It will be fascinating to see whether Jones’ heavy impact in transition will continue as a Perth Wildcat. The team is loaded with firepower, but the personnel does feel somewhat geared towards a slower pace, and if he’s not able to get out and run in the same capacity, we could see some slightly diminished production.

There’s no doubt that Bryce Cotton was the guy to go to when big shots needed to be generated outside of the system, and Jones feels unanimously like the big shot maker and taker on this team down the stretch of games.

SUMMARY

On paper, Mason Jones' G League production is a no-brainer to translate to the NBL. Sometimes G League numbers are a little noisy and context-dependent, but with four exceptional seasons to his name, the offensive production feels like a safe bet to succeed in Australia.

Given speculation around the Wildcats having a tight budget for a guard dropped people's expectations for the position, Jones appears to be an exceptional pickup. His short, unimpressive stint in Turkey leaves some cause for apprehension, but on the surface this production feels like an aberration through bad fit or circumstances.

It’ll remain to be seen how his role fits in with the Wildcats offensive pieces, but the upside is high as a lead guard to be in conversation with the league’s top backcourt talents if he’s given the freedom to play as he did in the US. He’s a different athlete to Bryce Cotton, but with his size, strength and scoring knack, he’ll be the guy they’ll be depending on to make up for their big loss in perimeter shot-making and play-making.

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