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YATES: This is The Sweet Spot where we take a closer look at the week’s biggest sports stories in Arizona. I’m Benjamin Yates, and welcome to our fourth episode of the Sweet Spot. We are excited to have everyone listening in to the show.

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YATES: On today’s show we recap recent news regarding three teams around the Valley, what the future of load management looks like in the NBA, how NASCAR works with the Phoenix Raceway to fundraise money for charity and a Mountain Pointe high school football player defying the odds by playing both flag and tackle football.

Suns swap big, Cardinals win big, Sun Devils come close but can’t close it out

YATES: A lot of things happened in the Phoenix area this week with some sports teams. From the Suns to the Cardinals to Arizona State’s football team, Alex Chenevey (SHEN-EV-EE) recaps all three teams and has more on what to look for in the coming weeks regarding all three.

CHENEVEY: The Phoenix Suns were involved in a three team trade that saw Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard shipped to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for point guard Jrue Holiday, the Bucks first round pick in 2029 and a combination of future first round picks. The Suns sent the Trail Blazers center Deandre Ayton and rookie forward Toumani Camara (KUH-MAR-EH) in exchange for center Jusuf Nurkic, and three other players. Ayton was the Suns number 1 overall pick in 2018, and helped the team to an NBA Finals appearance in 2021. The relationship between Ayton and the Suns seemed strained, as he and former head coach Monty Williams didn’t appear to be on the same page following the 2021 season. Some fans were fine with the trade, as one fan thought it was a win-win trade for both sides.

FAN: “I think it’s good for the Suns and, you know, James Jones, what they’re trying to do, he obviously wasn’t getting it done here. He was big and soft but a lot of people wanted him, he still has value in the league. So, I mean, he’s a good player, it just wasn’t happening here.”

Ayton is entering the second year of his 4 year, $132 million fully guaranteed max contract he signed before the 2022 season, and he will look to lead the Trail Blazers to the playoffs for the first time since the 2021 season.

CHENEVEY: The Arizona Cardinals shocked the football world on Sunday afternoon at State Farm Stadium, upending the undefeated Dallas Cowboys 28-16. The win would give Cardinals quarterback Joshua Dobbs his first ever victory as a starter. Dobbs passed for 189 yards and one touchdown while running 6 times for 55 yards.The victory was also Jonathan Gannon’s first win as the head coach.

Entering the game, the Cowboys were an 11 point favorite according to Caesars Sportsbook. However, the Cards would be the ones that got off to a hot start, as running back James Conner and wide receiver Rondale Moore would each tally rushing touchdowns in the first half. Thanks to three field goals from kicker Matt Prater, they entered halftime with a 21-10 lead.

The Cowboys would inch closer, as kicker Brandon Aubrey would kick two field goals of his own in the second half to cut the lead to 5. But the Cardinals would only need 4 plays to go 76 yards down the field to respond, as Dobbs would find wide receiver Marquise Brown on a 2 yard crossing route for the game clinching touchdown.

On their last drive of the game, Dallas got the ball in the red zone, but Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott would throw an interception into the end zone to Cardinals linebacker Kyzir White. White was swarming the field on Sunday, leading both teams in total tackles with 14. The Cardinals are now 1-2 and will go on the road next Sunday to play another undefeated NFC powerhouse in the San Francisco 49ers.

The Arizona State Sun Devil football team came into Saturday as one of the biggest underdogs of the season, as ASU was set to play No. 5 USC, with the Trojans entering Mountain America Stadium as a 33.5 point favorite according to FanDuel Sportsbook. With Heisman candidate Caleb Williams at quarterback, it was clear why USC was seen as the big favorite, but ASU would put up a fight.

With ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham calling plays on offense for the first time this season, ASU was able to enter the fourth quarter only down six points. However, Williams would throw two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach for the Sun Devils. USC would go on to win 42-28.

The Sun Devils do have some positives to take away from the game though. While Williams did score five total touchdowns in the game, it was also the fewest points USC has scored all season, as the Sun Devil defense tried their best to limit the Trojan offense. ASU scored a season high 28 points with backup quarterback Drew Pyne starting. Running back Cameron Skattebo (SKAT-EH-BOO) was able to find the end zone twice with rushing and receiving touchdowns. ASU will have its first road game of the season next week against 2-2 Cal, where the Devils will look to build off of their encouraging performance last Saturday.

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Get a load of this: NBA ‘load management’ rule limits resting of star players

HOST: The NBA is cracking down on load management this upcoming season. What is load management? It is a term used for when a team chooses to sit out a healthy player for rest, to avoid any long-term injuries or fatigue. It’s a strategy widely used across the league, but one that has more impact on the sport than you think. Cronkite Sports’ Austin Hepola takes a deeper look at this issue, and how the NBA will combat it.

HEPOLA: On September 13th, the NBA Board of Governors decided on a player resting policy that will limit teams from sitting their star players throughout the season. In recent years, load management has become more of an issue for fans as it prevents them from seeing some of their favorite players in action due to them being rested without a significant injury. The policy itself is very detailed, so I sat down and spoke with longtime NBA writer Howard Beck, who recently joined The Ringer as a senior NBA writer. Here’s our in-depth conversation on how this policy will impact all aspects of the National Basketball Association going forward.

HEPOLA: The NBA’s new player resting policy, you know, kind of gives me a landscape of like, what that looks like.

BECK: Yeah. So I think the main thing here is that the NBA, Adam Silver and the Board of Governors have finally come to a conclusion after years of watching load management impose itself on the NBA, that maybe we have a problem. Maybe this has gone a little too far. And by the way, Adam said this himself in his press conference, Maybe the science isn’t really that solid in the first place.

There just wasn’t enough data, enough conclusive science, in the league’s view, to justify all of these players, especially the star players. And that’s the big part of this, to justify them resting so often and then denying fans the ability to see those players. Right. There’s 20 to 30 players who are really the drivers of interest in this league, the drivers of engagement and of fan interest. And if those players, the Steph Currys or the LeBrons the Giannis Antetokounmpos the Joel Embiids; obviously I should mention the poster boy for load management Kawhi Leonard if those guys aren’t playing it’s bad for the league. It’s a bad look, it’s bad for TV ratings, it’s bad for the faith you’re supposed to keep with your paying fans who want to see those superstars. They pay to see them and then they get to the arena one night and they find out, Oh, that guy was being rested, is he hurt? No, he’s not hurt. He’s just resting.

This is kind of a course correction by the league. And now it’s only going to apply to stars. And they have a definition for who qualifies a star to do with All-NBA appearances and all these other things over the last three years. But it is a first major attempt by the league to basically say, we want you to play as many games as possible, as close to 82 as possible. That’s what our fans expect. That’s what the public expects. That’s what’s best for business. That’s what’s best for the health of our league.

HEPOLA: Yeah, you mentioned the, you know, the players and the fan aspect. How do you think that directly impacts the fans? You know, obviously they want to go out there and see their favorite players on the road and whatnot. How do you think that directly impacts those fan bases?

BECK: The trick to this question or to the answer to this question really is how well will the policy work? Right? Are teams going to abide by it because violating the policy just means you pay a fine. And some teams might say, you know what? We’re going to show even more how supportive we are of our star by saying, don’t worry, we got you, we’ll pay the fine, we’re resting you anyway.

That could happen. Teams may find other ways to skirt the rules or cheat by claiming a guy is hurt when he’s really just resting. So I think every fan should welcome this policy. I think most fans will welcome this policy if it in fact works.

HEPOLA: No doubt. And I definitely agree. You know, it really depends on if the policy is going to be restrictive and and actually, you know, consistent with the NBA teams and whatnot. You know, I read that you covered the Lakers, you know, during the prime Kobe/Shaq era.

You know, obviously, Kobe is known for voicing his opinion on playing in front of the fans. He always mentions, and there’s a lot of great interviews about him, talking about, you know, the people in the cheap seats that came to see him and whatnot. Do you think this policy in any manner will, you know, maybe encourage players to kind of think that way, or do you kind of think it’s maybe just pushing the players?

BECK: It’s a couple different thoughts on this. It’s a great question. One is that the vast majority of load management is not players raising their hand and saying, hey, I want to sit out tonight. Players very rarely do that. Kawhi Leonard is an example of that, and we use him as the avatar for load management and player rest, but he’s not actually the best stand-in for all these other players. When you see over the course of a season this players out tonight because of rest this players out because of rest. Most of them in most of those cases are resting because the team’s medical staff, the team’s sports science staff, the team’s front office has dictated this. The players are kind of like, all right, this is what you think is best for me. I’m going to trust you. But the players aren’t by and large choosing this.

That said, Kobe had what he termed the Mamba mentality. Right. And there are a lot, a lot, a lot of players in today’s NBA who say “Kobe was my idol. I want to be like Kobe. I’m a mamba mentality guy. That’s that. That’s the ethos I want to represent.” Well, if that’s the case, that doesn’t really jibe well with player rest or load management, right? I can only imagine what Kobe’s response to load management would have been if somebody came to him and said, “Hey. Kobe, we’d like you to rest tomorrow, and we’d like you to rest X number of games”, like Kobe would have dropped a few choice profanities in the direction of load management and in the direction of sports science.

HEPOLA: Yeah, I definitely would agree on that take for sure. And, you know, obviously, more specifically, I want to ask you, how do you think this will directly affect the Phoenix Suns? How do you think they might strategize for this upcoming season?

BECK: Yeah, that’s a great question, because one of the other things that has happened in the NBA this season, one of the other big news items off the court is that there’s a new collective bargaining agreement in place that went into effect July 1st and that CBA was trying to prevent super-teams. They don’t say it that way. They were, “We were trying to prevent high spenders beyond a certain limit, da da da.” But it was really about if you’ve got two max players, two superstars, we’re going to make it really, really hard for you via luxury taxes and other penalties we’re going to make it really hard for you to add a third star. Well, the Suns did it anyway.

How it will affect them? They’re one of the few teams that has three guys who all fall, and I think there’s like 50 league wide, who fall under the category or the definition of what the league will consider a, quote, star for player rest policy purposes. So that means on any given night, if Durant is resting, I don’t think you can rest Beal and or Booker as well. You want these guys in their best shape in the spring for the playoffs. So I think the Suns are definitely a team that’s going to want to use player rest, load management, whatever dirty term we want to use for it, they’re going to employ it, they’re going to try and they should.

But what these new rules are going to dictate is, well, you can’t rest of them all on the same night. You can’t rest them all for certain national TV games or certain road games because you don’t want to deny that market their lone chance to see Kevin Durant or Devin Booker. So it will affect, I think, the way that they manage those three as a group over the course of the season, how that actually manifests, we’ll see.

HEPOLA: In all of your time writing and reporting for the NBA. Have you ever seen a policy that has been as detailed, or like, minute as this one?

BECK: That’s a great question. I mean, so my friend Bobby Marks, who wrote this incredible, lengthy explainer for ESPN.com, just like a fantastic and very easy to read, but very, very long and very detailed explanation of this new policy. I remember in reading it the first time, just thinking, holy moly, like this is, there’s layers upon layers here.

The only thing that it’s reminiscent of is the CBA itself, which every time they make a new labor deal, it grows by another like 20%. It’s like the tax code. It just gets more and more complicated over time. Like the CBA, if you printed it out, would probably be just as high as like a five story building here in New York. So, yeah, it’s a great question because there was a lot a lot of detail to this. And no, I cannot recall any other just little wrinkle policy change, rule change that required such an extensive explanation.

HEPOLA: Yeah. Again, I want to appreciate you for your time. Thanks again, Howard, and good luck with your endeavors at the Ringer.

BECK: Thank you. Appreciate it.

HEPOLA: You have a good one.

BECK: All right Austin. Take care.

NASCAR allows fans to drive their cars on Phoenix Raceway for charity

HOST: Last saturday I was able to travel out to the Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, where the NASCAR Accelerator Charities event was held. Where 30 dollars allowed drivers to take laps around the track for charity.

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YATES: The Phoenix Raceway was roaring with engines, as NASCAR fans were able to take five laps around the track for charity. For just thirty dollars, you could put your car in the oval and help Phoenix Raceway Track President, Latasha Causey, raise money for Arizona Accelerator Charities.

<<Causey: We love doing track laps, because it opens up our raceway to the community. For true diehard race fans. They love the raceway, they love the track and being able to be on it. It provides us the opportunity to give back to the community. All of the funds that we receive today go back to Arizona Accelerator Charities, and Phoenix Raceway Charities, so we’re going to give all that money back into the community.>>

YATES: The fans who drove out to Avondale had a crazy collection of cars on the track. From Teslas and pickup trucks to Ferraris and Challengers, the raceway was full of stories and people willing to tell them, like NASCAR fan Brandon Caves

<<Caves: We like getting out on the weekends in our little hot rod, and we wanted to come out here, do some laps for charity. And help raise a little bit of money for a great cause, and have some fun while doing it.>>

YATES: Some fans were here for charity, others were here for family fun. Margaret Walker brought her entire family, kids and grandkids, with four cars in their laps around the track. A Fiat, a mini cooper, a Ford pick-up truck, and a Tesla.

<<Walker: Oh I love the race track, ever since I was a kid. I been to stock car races and I’ve been out here and hillside a couple of times, it’s been really fun.>>

YATES: The most exciting cars to show up to the raceway were the older, visibly more expensive vehicles. Challengers, Mustangs, and Lamborginis were among the higher end models of cars seen at the track. Keith Fell brought a Shelby Cobra to take around the track four separate times, marking 20 laps at Phoenix Raceway.

<<Fell: We don’t get to take it out often, but for this? We had to. I mean look at it, it’s fast just sitting still.”

YATES: Causey said that this event is one of several that are soon to come, as this will be at least the third year of the Track Laps for Charity. And in just two months, these fans will make their way from the track to the bleachers, as the NASCAR Championship race will be here in November.

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YATES: For The Sweet Spot, I’m Benjamin Yates.

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Mountain Pointe freshman is true two-way player, playing tackle and flag football in same season

HOST: The dream came true for the freshman quarterback at Mountain Pointe as this athlete is doing something that’s hard to do and that’s playing two sports in the same season.That requires time  management between school and going to two different practices. Brandon Tran has more in Ahwatukee (owl-took-key).

TRAN: The Pride freshman Amaya Moreno is doing the impossible, playing varsity girls flag and boys freshman tackle football. This is something we rarely see, playing two sports in the same season. Adding to the degree of difficulty, Moreno is playing one of the toughest positions in the sport …. quarterback.

[Nate sound]- Whistle, running

<<Amaya Moreno: “It’s not easy but it’s something I’m ready to do and I liked it to be honest.” >>

TRAN:  Last week she went from playing flag football against Mesa to tackle football the next day against Cesar Chavez. Amaya’s father Frank Moreno, who is the defensive coordinator for the girls flag football team explains how his daughter prepares for the two games.

<<Frank Moreno: “So we do a lot of recovery stuff stretching at home and coach Decker here runs the strength program all our girls are actually in that program as well so he’s maintain the recovery things like that for her.”

TRAN: Another thing Amaya goes through is two different practices learning different playbooks and then…. managing that and her school work.

<<Amaya Moreno: “I just have to communicate with my coach and everything. And I handle my business in the classroom you know paying attention and everything getting my work done and yeah I just have to stay focused on my goal in the classroom and the field.”

TRAN: Her freshman and flag football coaches have worked together to give her the opportunity to play both versions of the game. Sergio Ramirez coaches the flag team

<<Sergio Ramirez: “She’s a competitor and this is what she been looking forward to doing and now we have that opportunity for the high school to play AIA sanction ball the timing couldn’t be better for an athlete liked her to showcase what she can do.”

TRAN: Joel Griffin is her other coach on the freshman team.

<<Joel Griffin: “She’s a team leader and you know she loves the game of football. She’s a student of the game so it’s good and refreshing to have her out here and you know the guys kind of rally around her.”

TRAN: We are midway through the football season now and Amaya hasn’t missed a beat, playing both sports.  She will have an opportunity to possibly play in three games in the same week on three consecutive days with two flag and one tackle. For Cronkite Sports in Ahwatukee (owl-took-key), I’m Brandon Tran reporting.

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HOST: And this was The Sweet Spot. This show was produced by Alex Chenevey (SHEN-EV-EE). Special thanks to Alex, Austin and Brandon for their contributions to the show.

I’m your host Benjamin Yates. Until next time, thanks for stopping by the Sweet Spot!

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