The New York Knicks spent the summer trying to bring Moussa Cisse home. For a brief moment this week, there appeared to be one more opening.
Dallas has now closed it.
The Mavericks allowed Cisse’s Oct. 1 deadline to pass without waiving him, fully guaranteeing the 6-foot-11 center’s $2.185 million salary for the 2026-27 season. Dallas is taking the maximum 15 players on standard contracts on its preseason trip to Macau, while longtime Maverick Dwight Powell remains on the outside looking in for a regular-season roster spot.
For the Knicks, the decision effectively ends a months-long pursuit of a young center they had already tried to pry away from Dallas.
New York signed Cisse to a two-year, $4.7 million offer sheet in July, only for the Mavericks to quickly match it. The Knicks had strategically built an Oct. 1 guarantee date into that contract, leaving Dallas another decision to make before the season.
They made it.
Knicks Were Still Monitoring Moussa Cisse
The Knicks had not forgotten about Cisse after losing him the first time.
Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News reported this week that New York was monitoring Dallas’ situation as the Mavericks weighed their roster options. Knicks coach Mike Brown also acknowledged the broader need after Wednesday’s practice.
“We’re looking for bigs,” Brown said. “We’re looking at that position heavily.”
Cisse represented an intriguing possibility because he checked several boxes New York is still trying to fill.
Only 24, Cisse averaged 4.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in just 13.9 minutes over 38 games as a rookie. He also tied a Mavericks rookie record with 20 rebounds in the regular-season finale.
More importantly for the Knicks, he offered youth, athleticism and rim protection behind Karl-Anthony Towns and Andre Drummond.
The possibility of Dallas moving on from him grew more interesting when the Mavericks brought Powell back on a training camp contract. Dallas wanted to explore keeping its longest-tenured player, creating a numbers problem with its standard roster.
Cisse survived it.
New York’s Center Search Continues
That sends the Knicks back toward the competition already unfolding in their own gym.
New York lost Mitchell Robinson to Boston during the offseason and Ariel Hukporti to Philadelphia, leaving Towns and Drummond as its established centers. James Wiseman, Drew Eubanks and Tony Bradley were subsequently brought into camp as the Knicks search for another big man.
Cisse would have offered something different: a 24-year-old developmental center whom the organization had already valued enough to construct an offer sheet for in July.
There is another obstacle beyond his newly guaranteed salary.
Because Dallas matched New York’s restricted free-agent offer sheet, Cisse cannot be traded to the Knicks for one year. He also possesses the right to approve any trade during that period.
So the Knicks’ Cisse pursuit did not merely suffer another setback Thursday.
Barring an unexpected change much further down the road, it is over.
Now the question shifts back to Wiseman, Eubanks and Bradley — or whether another center shakes loose before opening night.
New York Knicks Get Bad News on Center Search