It’s been a long time coming but it’s finally here. Mason Jones is the third and final import for the Perth Wildcats in NBL26. There was not another team that had any greater of a hole to fill than the Wildcats and they secure someone who has a pretty good chance of doing the filling. Nobody too has a greater expectation to live up to than Jones; he will have to ease the loss of the greatest of all time. Jones’ impact will unfortunately always be linked to a benchmark so high that his attempts to reach them will be entertaining on their own. Jones’ story that is to come will be linked to Bryce Cotton with each moment but it is interesting to note their similar pathways that arrived at the same place.

Like Cotton, Jones was a high-scoring guard collegiately that went undrafted. Cotton is the 6’1″ point guard who plays like a shooting guard; Jones is the 6’5″ shooting guard who can play like a point guard. Jones has spent the five years of his professional career on the cusp of making the NBA. He played on two-way contracts for the Houston Rockets, Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Lakers from 2020 to 2022 then found himself on the outside. He spent the 2022–23 season in the NBA G League, briefly attempted to play in Turkiyë in 2023 and then returned to the G League for the 2023–24 season. Jones’ play with the Stockton Kings earned him a call-up to their parent Sacramento Kings where he earned another two-way contract. That arrangement lasted through the 2024–25 season. He played for the Kings at the 2025 NBA Summer League, did not make the team and is now here.

Cotton too was on the outer boundaries of NBA contention when he joined the Wildcats in 2017. He had spent two years with the Austin Spurs in the NBA Development League with two call-ups to the Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns. He accepted the inevitability of playing overseas by moving to China in 2016 but made it back for a brief stint with the Memphis Grizzlies only a few months later. When the Grizzlies did not retain him, Cotton again embraced fate and moved overseas to also play in Turkiyë. Due to safety concerns, he decided to leave the country at the end of 2016 and joined the Wildcats at the start of 2017 where he stayed for the next nine seasons.

High-scoring guards. Undrafted. NBA consideration. Developmental league stints. Turkiyë tenures. Perth Wildcats. Before the M.J. of A.D., time was represented by B.C. of B.C. Perhaps on mere similar career trajectories were the Wildcats first enticed to their new recruit but fortunately Jones presents more than a shadow of what was.

That is not to say that the tallest shadow of someone located 2,000 kilometres away will not ever be looming large over what is to be expected from Jones. It will always be there. It could not be forgotten that the reason for Cotton’s absence in the first place was self-inflicted; the Wildcats could not conceive that their greatest star could want to test free agency after nine seasons of service and instead rushed him into signing a contract that was not wanted. So rebuked by the flippancy was Cotton that instead of going overseas — which had long been anticipated — he joined the Wildcats greatest rival in the Adelaide 36ers. Life works that way.

Jones will come in with a point to prove even beyond the player comparison that he had no part in creating. He led the Stockton Kings to their first ever championship as the Finals MVP in 2025. There was probably an expectation that he deserved to get another NBA chance after that. Instead Jones is enticed to the Wildcats on a one-year deal where his ambition will decide whether he is here for the season or here to make his own legacy.

The Wildcats do complete a self-resuscitation in their signing of Jones. I cannot emphasise how important it was that the whole act of letting Cotton go was worthwhile. This needed to be someone who was young with NBA experience and major scoring ability; Jones conforms to all three. There was always the wonder of which position would they go for in their guard spot. Jones is listed as a shooting guard but averaged a team-high 7.7 assists per game with the Stockton Kings so he can easily be used in either position. This means that the Wildcats will have a starting line-up of Jones, Ben Henshall, Kristian Doolittle, Dylan Windler and Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. which is a major assembly. They improved their bench depth by adding 36ers free agents Sunday Dech and Lat Mayen. Elijah Pepper had a historic offseason in the NBL1 West — although such abilities did not translate to the NBL Blitz — while Dontae Russo-Nance and David Okwera showed further flashes of their possibilities during preseason.

Jones is a great landing. The Wildcats miraculously deliver. The duty is now passed to him on what he can put together for a story waiting to be written over.