Mark Cuban Talks Mavs, Practice Facility, 2019/20 Season
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said last week that his team will proceed with caution when it comes to reopening its practice facility. Speaking this week to Tim Cato of The Athletic, Cuban provided a few additional details on his stance, reiterating that he doesn’t feel the need to reopen the club’s facility until frequent coronavirus testing is possible.
“The way the White House protects the president and vice president is the way that I want to protect our players and employees, you know?” Cuban said. “We’ll just try to just copy what they do as a means of knowing when the time is right. As of now, for all we know, for all we’ve been informed, anyways, they’re testing everybody. And they test their top people on a daily basis. And so they have access to the best science, the best information, and so it just makes sense to me that we just copy them.”
Noting that the NBA is limiting players to one-hour workouts at practice facilities, with limited resources available in those sessions, Cuban suggested that opening up the Mavericks’ facility wouldn’t hugely benefit his own players, who all have access to hoops. For that reason, Cuban also doesn’t believe that teams opening their facilities now will have a major leg up over the Mavs.
“I don’t think it matters because the competitive advantage of one guy on one basket for one hour at a time isn’t all that significant,” Cuban told Cato.
Here’s more from the Mavs owner:
- Cuban isn’t worried about the possibility of lottery-bound teams resisting participation in regular-season games this summer, if and when the season resumes, as he tells Cato. “Guys realize there’s something bigger at stake,” he said. “And that’s the best way to put it. NBA players are smart. They recognize there’s something bigger at stake than, you know, the aggravation of playing five, six, seven, whatever-it-may-be more regular-season games even if they’re completely out of the playoffs.”
- Cuban pointed to the most recent episodes of The Last Dance when he explained one reason why the NBA wants to play regular season games rather than jumping right into the playoffs if the season resumes. “If you watched Sunday, when Michael Jordan came back?” Cuban said, referring to Jordan’s 1995 return to basketball. “And we’re talking Michael Jordan, right, in his prime. And he talked about how he didn’t have his legs for the playoffs.”
- The Mavericks won’t necessarily have to make major changes to their roster in order to become a championship contender, in Cuban’s view. Asked if he could picture eight or 10 players from the current roster being part of a title-contending Mavs squad a few years from now, he replied, “Yeah, absolutely. I expect our team to grow.”
- As for what he’ll remember about the pre-pandemic 2019/20 season, Cuban singled out Luka Doncic‘s growth, Kristaps Porzingis‘ return, and the “great progress” that the Mavs made. “We went from being a team that, you know, was out of contention for everything to being a team that, if we’re healthy, can potentially compete,” Cuban said.
Jazz Work Out At Practice Facility
A handful of Jazz players participated in voluntary, individual workouts on Monday at their practice facility, the Zions Bank Basketball Campus, Aaron Falk of the team’s website reports.
The Jazz entered their team’s practice facility for the first time since the NBA suspended play after March 11. Utah’s game at Oklahoma City was postponed prior to the opening tip that night after game officials were informed Jazz center Rudy Gobert had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
The Hawks also reopened their facility on Monday after the Trail Blazers and Cavaliers reopened on Friday, the first day the NBA allowed teams to return to their practice gyms for controlled workouts.
The workouts were done in accordance with Utah Department of Health and NBA regulations, including the prohibition of more than four players inside the facility at any one time. Practices and scrimmages are also barred.
The Jazz strength staff has conducted individual and video workouts over the past two months but many of their players do not have home gyms or access to basketball courts, Falk adds.
Woj On Durant, Schedule, NBA Finances, More
Although Nets general manager Sean Marks isn’t willing to close the door on the possibility of Kevin Durant returning to the court if the 2019/20 season resumes this summer, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski sounds prepared to slam that door shut.
In the latest episode of his Woj Pod, speaking to guests Rachel Nichols and Bobby Marks, Wojnarowski suggested that we still shouldn’t expect to see Durant make his comeback until the 2020/21 season gets underway.
“Kevin Durant’s not coming back to the Nets this year,” Woj said. “That’s not happening… They’re not playing him.”
While Wojnarowski didn’t go into detail on the Durant situation, his comment came during a discussion about teams being wary of rushing players back this summer, following a brief ramp-up period. The implication in Durant’s case is that the potential reward for the seventh-seeded Nets wouldn’t be worth the risk of possibly compromising the star forward’s health for next season.
Here are a few more takeaways from the latest Woj Pod episode:
- Asked by Nichols if the NBA might play a shortened season in 2020/21 – particularly if it starts around Christmas – Wojnarowski stressed that’s very unlikely. As he explains, the league will be doing all it can to recoup lost revenue next season, which will mean playing as many games as possible (ideally 82) in ’20/21. In other words, if the regular season starts in December, it will likely run into June, with the Finals potentially ending next August.
- During the podcast – and in a subsequent article for ESPN.com – Wojnarowski observed that the coronavirus pandemic has the potential to create major imbalances throughout the league. For instance, if certain states permit fans in arenas at the start of next season and others don’t, that could create a major earnings disparity between many of the league’s franchises, which could lead to competitive imbalance.
- Additionally, as Woj details, a number of smaller-market teams rely on the NBA’s revenue-sharing model and benefit from huge gate receipts from markets like Los Angeles, New York, and Golden State. If franchises in those big markets still can’t allow fans in arenas when the 2020/21 season begins – or have to do so on a limited basis – it would have a ripple effect throughout the rest of the league.
- Discussing the potential resumption of the 2019/20 season, Wojnarowski noted that the NBA will have to sell many of its lottery teams on prioritizing the “greater good” of the league — even if some of those teams would benefit (financially and otherwise) from simply canceling this season and focusing on 2020/21. Warriors head of basketball operations Bob Myers addressed this subject last week, vowing that his team would be “good partners” if and when the season resumes.
Hawks Reopen Practice Facility
The Hawks formally reopened their practice facility in Brookhaven’s Executive Park on Monday for individual workouts, according to Sarah K. Spencer of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
While many NBA teams play in states where stay-at-home orders are still in effect, that’s not the case for the Hawks — Georgia was one of the first states to lift many of those restrictions. Although the Hawks didn’t immediately reopen their facility when the NBA allowed teams to do so on Friday, they’ve now become one of the first clubs to reopen their building to allow voluntary workouts for players.
The Trail Blazers and Cavaliers reopened their facilities on Friday. Besides Atlanta, the Raptors, Nuggets, and Kings are also expected to reopen their respective buildings today, with a number of restrictions in place.
The NBA informed teams last week that they’ll now be permitted to test asymptomatic players for COVID-19 before they enter their facilities, as long as they’re in areas where testing is readily available to at-risk health care workers and receive written authorization from local health authorities. Having not received that authorization, the Hawks will just perform health and temperature checks on anyone entering their building, as Spencer tweets.
And-Ones: Shaq, Brown, Expansion, Antetokounmpo
Current NBA on TNT analyst and 15-time All-Star Shaquille O’Neal believes the league should cancel the rest of the season and shift its focus to next year, he said in an interview with Mike D. Sykes, II of For The Win.
O’Neal, listing safety concerns amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, explained the NBA shouldn’t rush the rest of this season or the playoffs. Instead, each of the players and teams should focus on next season.
“I think we should scrap the season,” O’Neal said. “Everybody go home, get healthy, come back next year. Just scrap the season. Just scrap it. To try and come back now and do a rush playoffs as a player? Any team that wins this year, there’s an asterisk. They’re not going to get the respect. What if a team that’s not really in the mix of things all of a sudden wins with a new playoff format? Nobody is going to respect that. So, scrap it. Worry about the safety of the fans and the people. Come back next year.”
A growing number of current NBA players remain optimistic that the season could be resurrected, including LeBron James, who tweeted as much toward the end of last month.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver held a call with players on Friday discussing the steps necessary for a return, including regulations on various practice facilities and what to expect for the future. For O’Neal, however, it’s clear what decision needs to be made.
“It’s hard, but kudos to Adam Silver for taking that first step and thinking about the safety of the people and the players,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with the remainder of the season but I would like everybody to be safe… So however long it takes for us to get 100% back to normal, I’m willing to wait.”
Here are some other odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Former NBA player Shannon Brown was arrested after being accused of shooting his rifle at two people who were interested in homes for sale in Atlanta last week, according to ESPN. Brown, who played nine NBA seasons and most recently spent time with Miami in 2014-15, told authorities he believed the couple was trying to break into his home. Investigators reportedly found one empty shell casing at his house, with Brown facing an aggravated assault charge due to the incident. Nobody was injured in the situation.
- Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report examines whether it’s time for the NBA to consider expansion to ease the financial burden caused by COVID-19. The league will likely be impacted by the coronavirus pandemic for multiple seasons to come, particularly from a revenue standpoint. “The league has expanded its line of credit, and I assume teams are using it,” said salary-cap expert Larry Coon. “Here’s an opportunity to erase that debt.”
- Alex Antetokounmpo, the youngest brother of Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, plans to play professionally in Europe and skip college with sights set on eventually making the NBA, according to Nikos Varlas of EuroHoops. Antetokounmpo, 18, is seeking the strongest competition possible to prepare himself for the future. “I am examining my options, I have a few choices from the States, but I have decided to play in Europe”, he said. “I want to become a pro as soon as possible. I was born and raised in Europe, I know European basketball and the best thing for me would be to sign a contract with a European club. I will have to train and compete against grown men, I will experience strong competition and pressure and I will evolve on every level.”
Coronavirus Notes: Dudley, Bubble, Heat, China
Jared Dudley, who serves as a Players Association representative for the Lakers, revealed that the NBA might be willing to play until October to finish the season (hat tip to The Sporting News). Responding late on Friday night to a comment by ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne that the league is willing to extend the season through Labor Day, Dudley tweeted, “I heard even Oct from Adam Silver today…”
The league has been talking with players and owners for weeks to determine a workable plan to save the season, and this is the latest potential completion date that has been made public. It reflects the growing optimism that has been reported throughout the league since a conference call involving the commissioner and the players Friday night.
There’s more coronavirus-related news:
- Players aren’t excited about the proposed “bubble” concept that would isolate everyone in a host city such as Las Vegas or Orlando, Shelburne said in an appearance on ESPN’s Dickerson & Hood radio show (Twitter link). “Players don’t really want to do a bubble,” she said. “They would much rather stay in their home cities, fly privately to and from wherever they’re going and be home with their families, not have tons of restrictions … players were really against the idea of being cooped up in a hotel for two months, three months or however long that would be.” She adds that strictly enforcing quarantine rules in a bubble setting could become problematic.
- The Heat have received formal clearance to begin player workouts at AmericanAirlines Arena, according to Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. Miami-Dade County issued an amendment to an emergency order that permits “use of facilities owned or leased by a professional sports franchise, solely by employees of such franchise for training purposes.” Players are expected to begin using the facility on Wednesday.
- Chinese Basketball Association president Yao Ming said the league is considering three options for resuming play, relays Ennio Terrasi Borghesan of Sportando. In an interview with CCTV, Ming explained that the league is still deciding whether to finish a full schedule, shorten the season, or go straight to the playoffs. Under any setup, players will be confined to hotels and fans will not be admitted to games.
- Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports contends it would be a mistake for the NBA to move opening day to Christmas on a permanent basis.
NBA Will Likely Need To Restructure CBA Amid Pandemic
During Adam Silver‘s call with NBA players on Friday, many near-term questions were presented, but there was a shortage of definitive answers as the league aims to resume its 2019/20 season. Silver stressed the need for testing and how it will expand as players return to practice facilities. Additionally, more information was provided in terms of travel, training camp and the 2020/21 season.
All of that doesn’t even scratch the surface of the financial impact the league will endure. With the season suspended in March, there have been no NBA games for two months and if they do resume, there is no guarantee fans will be allowed, potentially for all of 2020.
Per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link), the NBA was projecting $8 billion in revenue for the current season and $8.4 billion in 2020/21. However, those projections were in place before the coronavirus outbreak. As Silver noted, having fans in the stands for all games equates to 40% of the NBA’s revenue.
If the league moves forward with fan-less arenas, which may be limited to one or two locations at least for the rest of 2019/20, the loss of revenue will essentially force the league to restructure the current collective bargaining agreement. The league has already cut back salaries of employees, including players, while teams evaluate paying non-laid off or furloughed employees on a month to month basis.
Adam Silver On Player Travel, Testing, 2020/21 Season
During Friday’s call with NBA players, league commissioner Adam Silver addressed several topics regarding future plans to potentially resume the 2019/20 season. It remains unclear if or when that could happen but Silver discussed coronavirus testing, locations to play and the length of a possible training camp.
Silver also addressed other topics on the call, including other players that had been tested for coronavirus, potential travel alternatives for players should the season resume, and a potential start date for next season.
Check out some of those notes below:
- Silver mentioned that the NBA would not allow teams to use privates jets to shuttle players concerned with commercial travel to workouts, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported (Twitter link). One of the reasons for that decision is to manage a competitive advantage amongst teams, per Wojnarowski.
- While Jazz center Rudy Gobert was the first NBA player to test positive for coronavirus, he was not the first player to be tested for the disease, Silver told players, per Yahoo’s Chris Haynes (Twitter link). Silver added that before the crisis shuttered the season, the league was ahead of the curve in terms of testing.
- Per Shams Charania of The Athletic, a Christmas Day start to the 2020/21 season is “gaining momentum.” Obviously, if the current reason were to pick up, the ending could go well into August or September, when training camps typically begin. Therefore, a later beginning to the following season would be needed. Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer suggested on Friday that even a January start isn’t out of the question.
Silver To Players: Restart Likely To Be Held In One Or Two Cities
Commissioner Adam Silver told players in a conference call on Friday that it would be safer to restart the season in one or two “bubble” cities, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets.
Las Vegas and Orlando are the main options to resume to play in both conferences, though Silver has received inquiries from numerous city officials about hosting the remainder of the season, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports tweets.
A decision to resume the season doesn’t have to be made this month or at the beginning of June, Wojnarowski adds. If the NBA tries to finish the season, there’s no expectation that fans will be in the stands, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets. Silver cautioned the players that there will always be a measure of risk until a vaccine is developed for the novel coronavirus.
There’s also the possibility that fans will not be allowed in the arenas next season until a vaccine is readily available, Wojnarowski relays in another tweet. That will obviously impact finances, since the league generates approximately 40% of its revenue through fans attending games, Silver told the players. The league is working on creative ways with its TV partners to deliver the games to audiences, Wojnarowski adds.
There is real concern on both sides about the financial hardship caused by the pandemic. Michele Roberts, the executive director of the Players’ Association, broached that subject on the call with Silver. Silver said that the CBA “wasn’t built for an extended pandemic,” calling it “the greatest challenge” of our lifetime, according to Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Silver is hopeful of conducting seven-game series for each playoff round, particularly if there is no travel involved, according to Wojnarowski. The commissioner also told the players that he believes the owners unanimously want to resume the season, despite the fact that there might be some financial advantages to canceling if there will be no fans in the seats (Twitter link).
Coronavirus Notes: Facilities, Resuming Season, More
By allowing teams to reopen their practice facilities, the NBA is hoping to give players a safe environment in which to work out — and to encourage them not to frequent public gyms which won’t have the same safety protocols in place. However, as ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne writes, there’s skepticism among some league executives that players will be enthusiastic about jumping through so many hoops to get an hour-long workout in.
“Players are saying, ‘I can do my stuff at high school gyms, or whatever else I’ve been using right now, without having to go through all these protocols,'” a Western Conference general manager told ESPN. “And I can work out as long as I want there — not just an hour.”
Additionally, many players have left their home teams’ markets since the league went on hiatus nearly two months ago, and may be reluctant to return to those cities until they have a clearer sense of a timeline to resume the season, according to Shelburne. One team executive told ESPN he’d be surprised if any of his players returned to town right away to use the club’s reopened facilities.
“It took two to three weeks for everything to unwind when we shut down,” one high-profile agent said. “It’ll take at least that long for guys to get back to town. And they’re not going to start flying back until they hear the league is starting up again.”
Here’s more on the coronavirus and how it’s affecting the NBA:
- NBA teams believe that local government officials would need to permit gatherings of up to 50 people for full practices to resume and gatherings of up to 200 people to actually play games, sources tell Shelburne.
- Some team officials around the league are worried about the psychological effects that returning to organized activities during the coronavirus pandemic might have on certain individuals, writes Baxter Holmes of ESPN. As Holmes points out, there are a number of players, coaches, and executives across the NBA who could be considered “germaphobes” — the players in that group may not be comfortable being back on the court in the coming weeks.
- As teams begin to reopen their practice facilities, they have been informed by the NBA that anyone with a temperature greater than 99 Fahrenheit should not be permitted to enter, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
- Chris Mannix of SI.com has heard that the NBA could wait as long as late June before making any decisions on the resumption of its 2019/20 season.
- In case you missed it, we’ve published several other coronavirus-related items today, including some updates on the NBA’s discussions to resume the season, Michele Roberts‘ concerns about the “bubble” location concept, and the NBA allowing teams to begin testing asymptomatic individuals for COVID-19.