While 18 NBA teams "have or soon will have" standalone practice facilities, the Mavericks still "are among the have-nots, which isn’t to say they lack in resources or niceties for players -- in case anyone has forgotten who owns the franchise," according to Brad Townsend of the DALLAS MORNING NEWS. Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban has "clearly taken note of the practice facility boom and has brainstormed possibilities" for the team. But he said, "What we have now works, so there’s no rush. It’s too early right now, I think, to design a facility that’s going to be optimal for medical technology that’s coming down the road. ... There’s a lot of things we’re looking at doing, but they’re more driven by technology and medical technology than anything else. It’s not all about, ‘Hey, let’s go build some huge practice facility somewhere that has a bigger kitchen than the next guy.’ That really doesn’t resonate with me at all." The Mavericks "have practiced" on American Airline Center's basement practice court since the facility opened in '01. Cuban: "You’ve heard me say for a long time that first-line medicine is going to change everything. And anything we do is driven by the idea that somebody coming into the league today, if they watch their health and do what we tell them, they should be able to play 20 years and not leave the game barely able to walk, but feeling like a 25-year-old. We’re still in the first inning, right? So the technology is only going to get better and smarter." He said of what other teams have done thus far, "We’re still building analogue practice facilities. I want to deal with digital and try to do something that also advances the game for the city of Dallas" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/19).
