Mavericks Waive Dwight Powell, Their Longest-Tenured Player, After 12 Seasons

The Dallas Mavericks waived Dwight Powell on Monday, the team announced, in a move first reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania. Powell was the longest-tenured player in the building, with 12 seasons in Dallas behind him, and his departure trims the standard roster to 15 players the day before the regular season opens. The cut was a front office calculation with a date attached, not a verdict on the player, and the team’s own statement read like a farewell to a fixture rather than a camp decision.

What did the Mavericks announce about Dwight Powell?

They announced the end of the longest current tenure on their roster. Powell arrived in December 2014 as part of the trade that brought Rajon Rondo from Boston, ESPN reports, and stayed for 12 seasons across three distinct eras of the franchise. Dallas had already waived guards Seth Lundy and John Poulakidas, and Powell was the final cut needed to reach the 15-man limit, Hoops Rumors reports. The move leaves Dallas with 15 standard contracts and two two-way deals.

Why did the guarantee deadline force the decision on Monday?

Because Powell’s contract made Monday the expensive day to keep him. He re-signed shortly before training camp on a minimum-salary deal with a $1 million guarantee, and that figure would have risen to $1.5 million if he had made the opening-night roster, Hoops Rumors reports. Every front office in the league works against dates like that one, the same calendar pressure that shapes deals under the first and second apron rules and that left Karl-Anthony Towns describing his own extension talks in New York as not looking good. Dallas chose the cheaper certainty.

Why did Dallas keep Moussa Cisse instead?

Because Cisse was the one player Dallas could not risk putting on waivers. The other cut candidates, Cisse, Caleb Martin and Marcus Sasser, are each younger than Powell and owed more guaranteed salary, Hoops Rumors reports. Cisse would have been the cheapest to waive at $2.2 million, but Marc Stein reported late Sunday that several teams had interest in claiming the 24-year-old center if he became available. Dallas had matched the offer sheet Cisse signed with New York in the offseason and kept him through two guarantee dates in September and October. Waiving Powell cost guarantee money and continuity; waiving Cisse risked losing a young center for nothing. The league’s money is moving toward players a decade younger, the same direction as Cason Wallace’s five-year, $139 million extension in Oklahoma City on Sunday.

What did the Mavericks say about Powell’s 12 seasons?

Team president Masai Ujiri’s statement praised the person as much as the player. “Dwight was the consummate professional throughout his 12 seasons with the Mavericks and embodies everything you want in someone representing your organization,” Ujiri said. “He’s a tireless worker, an incredible teammate and someone whose impact extends well beyond the basketball court and into the Dallas community.” Head coach Dusty May had praised Powell days earlier, in comments reported by Grant Afseth of the Dallas Sports Journal and carried by Hoops Rumors: “Dwight has been very valuable so far to us. When he is on the floor, we function well.” May added that he tries to stay out of roster decisions, which is the honest summary of how a coach’s favourite veteran still gets cut.

What were Powell’s numbers in his final Dallas season?

Modest, and nobody in Dallas pretends otherwise. Powell appeared in 63 games with 12 starts last season, averaging 3.3 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 14.3 minutes, Hoops Rumors reports. He played in three of the four preseason games this month while hoping to play one more NBA season. His value was never the box score: screening, passing and locker room steadiness on a roster that now leans young, on a team whose preseason also produced the lighter viral moment of Naji Marshall breaking a rim and a folding chair at the Mavericks’ first practice in Macao.

What happens next for Powell?

The waiver clock decides the next step. Powell is on track to become an unrestricted free agent on Wednesday if no team claims him, Hoops Rumors and ESPN report. A claim would hand the claiming team his minimum contract and the guarantee that comes with it; clearing waivers leaves him free to choose. Veteran minimum centers tend to find work when frontcourts thin out in November and December, and Powell’s selling points are the ones Ujiri listed: professionalism, screening and a reputation as a teammate. Twelve seasons with one franchise is a rare run for a role player. It ended the way those runs usually end now, on a guarantee date.