Mavs Donnie Nelson Details Plans If Players Test Positive For COVID-19
The Dallas Mavericks are preparing for the season to resume at the end of the month. The team has already gone through the necessary testing for COVID-19 and have everyone back in the fold that will be traveling to Disney World.
The Mavericks are currently the seventh seed in the Western Conference with a 40–27 record, and are slated to make the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Dallas also has a real shot to contend for a championship this season with all 22 having to deal with the possibility of not having their full roster available due to players opting not to play for the remainder of the season or players testing positive for COVID-19.
“I think the team or teams that stay the healthiest [COVID-19-wise] will probably have the best chance of going deep in the playoffs,” GM Donnie Nelson said.
On Wednesday, Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle and Nelson spoke with the media about the restart process. Carlisle touched on the teams' practice schedule before departing for the Magic Kingdom.
“The challenges are that these workouts are one-on-one workouts and up until today they have been voluntary,” Carlisle said. So players will have to get acclimated to playing together again.“Participation has been tremendous top to bottom. We’ve had great participation with guys that are in town and we’ve been able to get everybody back in town which is great.”
As for the testing process for COVID, Carlisle shared that he has already been tested five times and will be testing every other day.
“We are testing every other day. We’ll get on the plane in a week and we’ll go down to a situation that no one’s ever been in before,” Carlisle said. “Again, I view it as a very positive thing and a very exciting opportunity and we will approach it that way.”
GM Donnie Nelson shared that playing in the bubble doesn’t come without any risk, but he was excited about traveling to Orlando.
“It’s not risk-free, but there is an optimism and excitement about getting to Orlando and getting the Dallas Maverick machine revved up again,” Nelson said. “Because we’ve got a lot of young guys that are fearless and a coach who’s won a championship.”
However, Nelson did share with reporters on Wednesday, if someone were to test positive they had a plan in place.
“ So, when or if that happens, we would have to sign a free agent. We would have to bring him in and have a seven-day quarantine period. So, again, it is critically important that as soon as something that heads in that direction or we think its a possibility it's going to be a fireman type scenario,” Nelson said.
“If we have one or two people at any position that go down, we will immediately sign a possible free agent on the market. Get them on a plane and get them down as quickly as possible and there would be a quarantine period of seven days that the player would have to sit, and not play. And as you guys know, whether it’s the last eight games or a playoff game, every game counts. That it is critically important that our guys stay healthy.”
The Mavericks are set to get on a plane headed to Orlando next week to begin the quarantine process to finish the season.
