The Lakers waived Frank Mason III less than a day after signing him

Just 19 hours after officially signing him to an Exhibit 10 contract, the Los Angeles Lakers have waived Frank Mason III, the team announced.

This is an unsurprising development, as the team likely only added Mason to get his rights for their G League team, the South Bay Lakers. NBA teams are required to trim their rosters down to a maximum of 15 players by the start of the regular season (two-way contracts don’t count against this limit), and the Lakers have said they want to leave their final roster spot open for the buyout market and to save money on luxury taxes, so Mason will likely soon be joined by fellow Exhibit 10 signees Trevelin Queen, Chaundee Brown and Cam Oliver.

But even among all those unheralded names, the Mason signing especially screamed a move where the team added a player — one who was only made official at the last minute — just to make sure the developmental team had a competent “veteran” (by G League standards) point guard to set up their young talent for success. By signing and then waiving Mason, the Lakers acquired his G League rights for South Bay.

So like undrafted rookie Mac McClung before him, expect Mason to head to the South Bay Lakers in the G League, where the front office can continue to monitor his progress from inside their very own practice facility. By virtue of his Exhibit 10 contract — which provide a player a bonus ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 if they get cut in training camp but stay with their team’s G League affiliate for at least 60 days — he will at least be compensated for the few hours he spent on the roster.

With SBL, Mason will likely play alongside two-way players Joel Ayayi and Sekou Doumbouya and the aforementioned players who will likely follow him after tonight’s final preseason game, as well as breakout rookie Austin Reaves, who will probably get to spread his wings on assignment in the G League a bit more often than he does with the parent squad once the roster gets healthy.

This developing story may be updated with more information. For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.