You got the feeling when news broke that the Knicks were signing Mavericks rookie center Moussa Cisse to a two-year offer sheet that it wasn’t really going to go anywhere.
As much as we had 10 hours of coping and looking for a reason Masai Ujiri and company would let him go, he was basically their version of Mo Diawara. Would we have let Diawara walk for that? Probably not.
So when Dallas matched it with extreme quickness on Saturday night, it wasn’t too surprising that the Knicks’ quest to fill out their roster and get a third center on the depth chart before the season begins in approximately three months would go on.
For a refresher on where the cap situation is, check here. It’s pretty vanilla, though.
The Knicks have space to sign one more player to a standard contract, regardless if it’s a veteran or a cheaper internal option. The only difference between the two would be how early the team would be able to sign a 15th player.
If the Knicks signed Tyler Nickel to a standard deal at the second-round exception value of $1.36 million, they’d be able to sign a 15th player as early as Thanksgiving, while if they signed a player to a veteran minimum, it would move the window into February right around when the buyout market starts to heat up.
They have some choices, but the remainder of the offseason firmly falls into two categories:
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Filling the final roster spot
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Figuring out the two-way contracts
Objectively, the right decision is to look for a center to fill the final roster spot because of the team’s current lack of insurance behind Karl-Anthony Towns and Andre Drummond. There’s no Precious Achiuwa type who can play it in a pinch. Your emergency center is OG Anunoby.
Who’s available to fill that role? Well, assuming Leon Rose can’t get the Hornets or Pelicans to budge on Moussa Diabate or Yves Missi, here are the top free agent center options (excluding Jalen Duren, obviously):
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Nick Richards (2025-26: Bulls)
Woof.
Richards and Tillman are the only ones you’d even entertain. The former seems more likely, as he’s been linked to the Knicks a bajillion times as emergency center depth over the years. A longtime Hornet who appeared to be on the verge of a breakout in 2024, he was traded to the Suns for three second-round picks and regressed big time.
Never a diverse offensive big, it’s pretty drastic when a guy like him goes from shooting 64% from the field and 74% from the free-throw line to whatever the hell he did last year. In 48 games with the Suns and Bulls, his efficiency cratered. He tried to shoot some threes after being banished to the Bulls’ tankfest but that didn’t go well either.
As underwhelming as the 28-year-old is, and how the team probably doesn’t want another shoddy finisher after adding Drummond’s notoriously bad touch around the rim, he’s two years removed from being pretty promising. As a third center who would spend much of the season (hopefully) on the bench, you could do worse.
Tillman is the other one that you wonder about. He spent a year and a half in Boston as a reserve big, but made big plays when called upon.
The most we’ve seen from him in the NBA is with the Grizzlies for a few years as a spot starter, where he did okay as an undersized big. The biggest problem with him is just that he’s a center in a power forward’s body who struggles to do much outside the paint and is also ghastly from the foul line. He’d firmly behind Richards to me, but ahead of the other options.
One more thing on the center chase: if we want to be petty, go after this guy the Mavericks really like but don’t have a lot of room for after matching Cisse’s contract. He’s older, but he can fly.
The last bit of business they’ll have to figure out is the two-way math. Last year, the team carried Kevin McCullar Jr., Trey Jemison III, and Tosan Evbuomwan into the season, but swapped Evbuomwan for NBA champion Dillon Jones midseason.
Jones has stayed around the organization during Summer League, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he stayed on a two-way after being a big locker room piece. Tyler Nickel will probably start on a two-way, and if Jack Kayil stays in America, he’ll also go on one.
But the Knicks should want to keep Jemison and McCullar around. It’s been total radio silence for both of them this offseason, but you can do a lot worse than having them on two-way deals.
The Knicks are able to bring as many as 21 guys into training camp without damaging their second apron space, so it wouldn’t surprise me if we see Nickel, Jemison, McCullar, Jones, and another guy or two in camp to compete for those spots. Did Liam Robbins do enough in Summer League to get a tryout?
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