The Mavericks are down to a familiar kind of late-summer dilemma: keep the veteran who has been around the longest, or make one more move to preserve flexibility elsewhere on the roster. Dwight Powell remains at the center of that decision, even after sitting out Wednesday night’s loss to the New Orleans Pelicans and staying on the bench again as Dallas moved through its preseason schedule.
That is the point of this story. Powell is not just another name fighting for a place in camp. He is the longest-tenured player on the roster, a veteran big man whose contract expired this summer, and whose status now sits inside a larger frontcourt calculation. The Mavericks have 15 standard deals available, but they also have to weigh whether Powell is worth one of the final spots before Monday’s 3 p.m. CT cuts deadline.
The roster math is the real story
This has become a numbers problem as much as a basketball one. Dallas already made one notable commitment this offseason when Moussa Cisse’s two-year offer sheet was matched to keep him in the organization. The Mavericks then missed the deadline to cut Cisse, which made his contract fully guaranteed at $2.1 million. That matters because the team’s final roster space is now tied to a chain of decisions, not just Powell’s individual case.
Powell’s presence also has to be understood in context. He is not being treated like a fringe preseason body. He has been described as valuable, and the way Dallas functions with him on the floor remains part of the evaluation. Dusty May said Powell has been very valuable so far and that it is obvious when he is on the floor that the team functions well. That is not the language of a player on the edge of relevance. It is the language of a team trying to decide how much that value should count against its final roster construction.
What Dallas still has to decide
The question, then, is not simply whether Powell belongs in the building. It is whether Dallas will move another player to make room for him. The likeliest candidates to be moved are Moussa Cisse and Tarik Biberovic, which tells you how narrow the decision has become. The Mavericks are not trying to solve a star problem. They are trying to solve a depth problem before Monday.
Powell’s case is also shaped by timing. On Friday night, Dallas hosted the Atlanta Hawks in its final preseason dress rehearsal, and the regular-season opener arrives Wednesday, Oct. 21, at the Houston Rockets. That leaves almost no margin for indecision. The team has to decide by Monday at 3 p.m. CT whether Powell is part of the opening-night group or whether the front office takes a different route to preserve roster balance.
There is also a broader basketball question underneath the deadline pressure. Powell is a veteran big man in a frontcourt that already has important pieces to sort through, including Cooper Flagg, Kyrie Irving, Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford. For Dallas, the challenge is not just collecting talent. It is deciding which combinations actually make the team function cleanly over the long season ahead.
That is why this roster spot matters more than a routine preseason cut. Powell’s standing is tied to continuity, experience and fit. But the Mavericks are also making a decision about the shape of the 2026-27 season and the balance of their frontcourt depth chart. By Monday afternoon, they will have to choose which version of the roster they want to carry into the year.
