Knicks Should Target a Different Center Who Has Mavs Connection

The Dallas Mavericks thwarted the New York Knicks' attempt to poach intriguing young big man Mouss Cisse. Despite having plenty of centers on their roster already, Dallas obviously felt like they couldn’t risk getting egg on their face courtesy of New York again.

While Dallas slammed the door shut on the Knicks snagging Cisse, they left the door ajar for Leon Rose to steal away a different young big man under their umbrella.

Knicks could turn to Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu with Mavs unlikely to sign him

Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu, or “Kao” as he’s commonly referred to, put on a show with the Mavs in Summer League and is available for any team to take a shot on.

The 6-foot-10, 243-pound center used his freakish athleticism to throw down some of the most memorable lob dunks Vegas has seen, including a sequence of three alley-oop posters in a row. It’s almost impossible to overthrow a lob to him and he spent more time above the rim than below it in Sin City.

Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu with not 1, not 2, but 3 alley-oop posters in a row for the Mavericks! #MFFL

(🎥: @dallasmavs) pic.twitter.com/CHXhraXwXd
— DLLS Mavs (@DLLS_Mavs) July 16, 2026

We have long overused the basketball phrase, “He can jump out of the gym." But it's perfectly fitting for the Nigeria native, whose length is off the charts with a vertical leap of 48 inches and a 9-foot-3 standing reach.

He also has a 7-foot-4 wingspan and is one of the only people on the planet who's able to touch the top of a standard backboard, which is 13 feet high. His jumping ability has made him Tik Tok famous.

Akobundu-Ehiogu is not exactly a baby or total unknown. The 26-year-old has played professionally in Europe over the last four years, most recently for EuroCup participant Manresa in Spain. He was with the Nuggets in Summer League last year, but it’s been a long road to getting onto the NBA radar.

He didn’t start playing basketball until he was 13-years old. Following his senior year of high school, not a single program at any level offered him a scholarship and he never appeared on any of the major recruiting sites.

Not long before the COVID pandemic broke out, Akobundu-Ehiogu picked up a job at Home Depot while recovering from a Jones fracture suffered while playing pickup after one season at a tiny private Christian school called Southwestern Assembly of God University, according to Yahoo Sports. He was also taking classes to improve his academic transcript so he could transfer.

Then came two seasons at UT Arlington before suiting up for coach Penny Hardaway at Memphis for a year. In those three seasons combined, he had a block rate of close to 17%. He and Anthony Davis are the only two Divison I men’s basketball players since 2008—minimum 40 games—with career numbers of 13 BLK%, 45 dunks and greater than 70% shooting from the free throw line.

The bouncy big man is still an unfinished project

As tantalizing as Akobundu-Ehiogu’s talent is, his offensive repertoire clearly still needs a couple of levels of graduation. He's never averaged more than 5.0 points per game in a season as a college amateur or for his international teams. He's prone to fouling, lacks basketball fundamentals, and has work to do on setting better screens.

It makes little sense for Dallas to invest in another underdeveloped big man, even if it's on a two-way deal. The opportunity seemingly isn't there for Akobundu-Ehiogu, especially with Cisse back.

But that allows the Knicks to explore his intriguing raw tools and see if he's actually a reasonable answer to their backup center question. It shouldn't take much for New York to attract him, with a two-way deal or training camp invite being enough.

Meanwhile, that'd provide the Knicks with another low-risk, high-reward kind of player who could be a lottery ticket that pays off. Pitting him against fellow Summer League standout Liam Robbins would make for an exciting battle in camp to see who's worth signing for this season.

With Ariel Hukporti departing and a proven vet in Andre Drummond already on board, New York does have room to carry a more developmental player for its third center spot, so it makes plenty of sense to at least considering adding Akobundu-Ehiogu to the mix for camp.

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