The New York Knicks have put a two-year offer sheet in front of Moussa Cisse, and now the Dallas Mavericks are staring at a 48-hour window to decide whether the 6-foot-11 center is worth keeping or worth letting walk.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported the agreement Saturday afternoon. Cisse, a restricted free agent after his rookie season in Dallas, would join the Knicks if the Mavericks decline to match. The structure is team-friendly in the way these sheets usually are — first-year salary half guaranteed, the 2027-28 season non-guaranteed — which is to say New York is hedging its bet the same way a coach hedges against a blitz by keeping a tight end in to block.
Cisse appeared in 38 games for Dallas in 2025-26, averaging 4.5 points and 5.7 rebounds. Those aren’t numbers that make you cancel your afternoon plans. But he’s 6-foot-11 with a 7-foot-something wingspan, and in this league, big men who can rebound and block shots get second and third looks even when the offensive box score doesn’t jump off the page. The film doesn’t lie about size.
The Knicks lost Mitchell Robinson this offseason, and that departure left a hole in the middle that somebody has to fill. Cisse isn’t a like-for-like replacement — Robinson was one of the better offensive rebounders in the league when healthy — but New York is clearly betting on the developmental upside of a young center who only has one professional season under his belt.
Here’s how the restricted free agency process works: Cisse signed an offer sheet with New York, but Dallas holds matching rights. The Mavericks can retain him by agreeing to the exact same terms the Knicks offered. If they pass, Cisse heads to Madison Square Garden. Charania’s report dropped at 1:51 p.m. ET on Saturday, which puts the Mavericks’ deadline at roughly midday Monday.
Dallas faces a straightforward calculus. Matching means committing guaranteed money to a second-year center who played limited minutes as a rookie. Declining means losing a developmental big man for nothing. The half-guaranteed first year and non-guaranteed second year make the sheet less punishing than it could be — the Knicks built in their own escape hatches — but the Mavericks still have to weigh whether Cisse fits their roster and payroll picture going forward.
For a Dallas front office that has spent the last year reworking its roster around a new core, a modest offer sheet for a reserve center might not be the hill they die on. Then again, you don’t let a 6-foot-11 body walk out the door without thinking it through. There aren’t that many of them, and the ones who can rebound tend to stick around longer than you expect.
The clock is running. By Monday, we’ll know whether Cisse stays in Dallas or gets a fresh start in New York.
Sources
- Yahoo Sports / HoopsHype — Moussa Cisse offer sheet report
- Yahoo Sports / The Sporting News — How the offer sheet works and the Mavericks’ deadline