Could Channing Frye be Cavaliers' missing piece?
ATLANTA — Channing Frye spent the first 44 games of the season with the Orlando Magic, the veteran on a young team learning how to win and struggling with growing pains.
“When I went to Orlando, I had high hopes, and it just didn’t work out,” Frye said late Friday night. “I was the oldest guy on the team. We were very young. Those are great guys down there, man. They’re just young and really trying to establish themselves. I think Coach (Scott) Skiles did a great job this year of giving them an identity, of showing them how hard it is to win. They’re going to be great in the future. They’re some good, good kids, and they’re very talented.”
Frye made those comments shortly after he scored a game-high 27 points for the Cleveland Cavaliers in their 121-108 victory over the Atlanta Hawks in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference semifinals series.
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Frye connected on 10-of-13 shots from the field, including 7-of-9 on three-pointers, and the Cavs wouldn’t be up 3-0 with a chance to finish off the Hawks in Game 4 on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC) without Frye.
He scored 18 points in the second half, including 11 in the fourth quarter when Cleveland erased a nine-point deficit.
“I always tell everybody around me I just want to earn my keep here,” Frye said. “Whether it’s one game (or) it’s one quarter, I’m going to help us win. Tonight, I just got the opportunity, and I took advantage of it. I’m appreciative that they kept giving me the rock, and they let me go crazy a little bit.”
That’s exactly what the Cavs’ front office and coaching staff envisioned when Cleveland acquired Frye from the Magic at the February trade deadline.
Going from a lottery team to a championship-caliber team rejuvenated Frye and right after the trade, Skiles gave Frye encouragement.
“Scott Skiles told me ‘Hey Channing man, you’re a great player, you’re going to help them win a game in a series, you know. You’re going to help them win a game and do some bigger things,’ ” Frye said. “I always think about that.”
Cleveland coveted his three-point shooting, and Frye shot 37.7% from that distance in 26 games for the Cavs. In the playoffs, he is shooting 10-for-17 – a blistering 58.8%, contributing to Cleveland’s astounding 53% on 61-of-115 three-pointers in the series.
“Channing’s an excellent three-point shooter,” Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said. “Channing did a great job of taking the shots, and we want him to be aggressive taking the shots and he made them tonight.”
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He has found his role and enjoys the team. He is longtime friends with Cavs reserve Richard Jefferson. They played at Arizona but not at the same time.
“Everybody on this team is pros," Frye said. "I’ve told many people this is probably the best chemistry team I’ve been on in my 10, 11 years. It’s amazing.”
Cavaliers general manager David Griffin was an executive with the Phoenix Suns when that franchise signed Frye before the 2009-10 season. The Suns helped extend his career, expanding his game from a low-post player to a stretch four.
In Frye’s first four seasons in the league, he shot 64 three-pointers. Griffin and then-Suns coach Alvin Gentry watched Frye shoot and encouraged him to step behind the three-point line. He saw the NBA trend and adapted.
In his first season with Phoenix, he shot 392 threes and shot 45.1%. He followed that season with 349 threes and made 43.2% of them. Frye missed the 2012-13 season because of an enlarged heart, spent 2013-14 with Phoenix and joined Orlando before the 2014-15 season.
“It went from being someone who oversees and (does) a lot of teaching in Orlando and taking a step back and just going through a lot of learning pains to ‘This is your job. You shoot it. Don’t dribble, don’t do anything else, just shoot this thing. And if somebody is next to you pass it, and somebody else will shoot it,’ ” Frye said of going from one team to the other. “It makes it simple. It makes the game fun. I’m just appreciative of this opportunity, man.”
Lue also made an adjustment to his rotation, playing forward Kevin Love and Frye together for 12 minutes. It was a lineup Lue couldn’t use often earlier in the season because Frye wasn’t comfortable with Cleveland’s defensive system and the Cavs were giving up too many points with those two on the court. But Frye has improved defensively, using his smarts to make up his lack of speed.
In those 12 minutes against the Hawks with Love and Frye on the court, Cleveland outscored Atlanta 38-17 and made 14 of 22 shots from the field and 9-for-13 on three-pointers.
“They really just got hot,” Hawks forward-center Al Horford said. “Part of it had to do with Love and Frye playing out there at the same. We didn’t prepare for that, and they took advantage.”
