Dwight Powell’s path back onto the Dallas Mavericks’ standard roster just got much steeper.
Dallas re-signed the veteran forward/center to a one-year, partially guaranteed deal right before training camp and told him it would make a “true effort” to find him a spot. For a while, the cleanest way to do that seemed to be moving on from Moussa Cisse, the second-year center out of Memphis.
That door may have closed. Cisse’s 2026-27 salary of $2.2 million became fully guaranteed after Oct. 1 passed, and he remains on the roster. The Mavericks are headed to Macao this weekend for two preseason games against Houston with the maximum 15 standard contracts already in place, while Powell is still trying to earn his way in.
The financial hit of cutting Cisse would be small enough to absorb, but it would still be money wasted if Dallas chose that route. And even before the guarantee kicked in, the idea of waiving a younger player with upside for a veteran who could be in the final season of his career never looked like the cleanest move.
Powell’s return made for a curious decision on the surface, though most of the money in his deal only becomes guaranteed if he’s on the roster on opening night. He’s been with the Mavericks since the 2014-15 season, arriving as part of the trade with Rajon Rondo as a rookie.
The problem now is simple: there may not be an obvious opening left.
A lot of attention has been on Caleb Martin, who has struggled since arriving in the Quentin Grimes trade. Fans would love to see Dallas move on from him, but that’s easier said than done.
Martin has two years and $19 million left on his contract, which makes him difficult to trade and difficult to waive. Stretching the deal doesn’t make much sense either, especially with the Mavericks still paying off Olivier-Maxence Prosper and JaVale McGee.
That leaves Powell in a tricky spot. Dallas could still find a home for him elsewhere in the organization, the way it did with Garrett Temple, who joined the coaching staff. Tyson Chandler is also on the staff as a player development coach, so there’s a precedent for keeping a respected veteran around without a roster slot.
Tarik Biberovic is not going anywhere, and Marcus Sasser has been turning heads as well. If Martin can’t be moved, Powell may simply run out of room on the 15-man roster.
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Cooper Flagg Is Already Entering A Debate Mavs Fans Know Well
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For Dallas, the real intrigue is less about the label itself and more about what comes next. Flagg is being measured against the standards that have long surrounded players like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and even Victor Wembanyama, which says plenty about the expectations already attached to him. The question now is whether the early flashes are enough to put him in that rare company, or whether the bigger case still has to be made on the floor. [Read more 🡒]
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For a player who has had to earn every step, the move raises the stakes in a different way. Ciss no longer has to wonder whether his roster status will hold, but he still has to prove he belongs in the rotation, and the Mavericks have effectively made him a longer-term piece rather than a temporary audition. [Read more 🡒]
P.J. Washington's Mavericks Role Is Suddenly A Real Camp Storyline
The Mavericks are still sorting out their starting lineup as camp approaches, and the power forward spot has become one of the early things worth watching under Dusty May. P.J. Washington looks like the leading option to open the season there, but the competition is real, with Naji Marshall also in the mix and the frontcourt rotation still taking shape as Dallas tries to settle into a new coachs vision.
Washington enters this as a central figure for more than just depth-chart reasons, too, because he is beginning the first season of a four-year extension and has a chance to anchor a group that is still being sorted out. Even with a starting job in reach, the bigger question in Dallas is how the Mavericks balance role, chemistry and lineup fit while they decide who best fits alongside the rest of the core. [Read more 🡒]