Moussa Cisse Is the Only Center Dallas Has, and That's the Problem

The Mavericks enter the week with one center on the active rotation. That's it. Dwight Powell is gone after 12 years, Dereck Lively II won't be extended, and behind Moussa Cisse there is simply nobody logging meaningful minutes at the position. One player, one option, no margin.

The deeper issue is that Cisse isn't playing like a starter capable of carrying that load. He's producing at less than half the league median for centers — the kind of output you'd expect from a backup asked to spot-start, not from the only big man a team is running out there every night. That gap is real, and it doesn't close on its own.

Dallas did add Walter Clayton Jr. on a two-way deal last week, but Clayton is a guard. The center position got no answer. My read is that the Mavericks are either betting Cisse develops quickly enough to make this workable, or they're planning a move they haven't made yet. Neither of those is a plan you want to be executing a week into the season with two losses already on the board and Cooper Flagg's shoulder still a question mark.

It's early. But the center situation was a known problem before the opener, and it hasn't changed shape at all.