Mavs To Re-Open Practice Facility on Thursday, Says Carlisle

The Dallas Mavericks Have Been Among The Most Cautious NBA Teams Regarding COVID-19 Issues, But They Are To Re-Open Practice Facility on Thursday, Says Coach Rick Carlisle

DALLAS - The Dallas Mavericks plan to take a step forward in this COVID-19 time by re-opening the team's practice facility for player workouts on Thursday.

"Mark Cuban has made the correct decision waiting to be one of the last teams to open their facility,'' Rick Carlisle tells DallasBasketball.com. "We have studied the trends and want to make sure every effort is made to keep our players, coaches and support staff safe.''

The NBA is permitting its member teams to re-open facilities in states in which there is that governmental allowance. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott allowed the stay-at-home order to expire May 1 - but owner Cuban's club has remained careful in not wanting to progress too soon. (See above video with Carlisle's tempo-setting thoughts on the subject.)

Some Mavs players have remained in the DFW area. Others, including star guard Luka Doncic, traveled overseas to go home after the NBA suspended play 10 weeks ago.

NBA players coming in to their market cities after having traveled elsewhere will likely go through a quarantine period before they are cleared to participate in group activities.

"Group activities'' themselves could continue to be limited as the NBA feels its way forward here.

Team owner “Mark Cuban has been very vigilant on the fact that we cannot be in a rush to reopen unless the timing is right,'' Carlisle said to the Dallas Morning News, which was first on the story, adding, “I’m very optimistic that we will restart, but I do not want to have a heavy-handed opinion on how things should go.''

Meanwhile, the NBA continues to work on a variety of concepts for returning not only to the practice court, but to the game court.