Orlando Magic: Is Channing Frye The Steal Of The Summer?
By Luke Duffy
While the NBA offseason was dominated by the movement of LeBron James and Kevin Love, other teams did their best to fill out their rosters with the best available players left to them. Every season, teams hit home runs and pick up players perceived to play at a certain level, but who come in and contribute so much more than people think they will.
Recent examples of this are Jarrett Jack for the Golden State Warriors and Mo Williams for the Portland Trail Blazers. Channing Frye signed a longer deal with the Orlando Magic than those examples given and will stick around longer, but he could be the best mid-level caliber signing of the summer for a number of reasons.
We’ll begin with his contract. Four years and $32 million. Talk about reasonable. Even if this guy is a bust, and he won’t be, that’s the sort of contract you can swallow for the time he’s around or move along relatively easily. In fact, it is a similar looking one to that of Arron Afflalo last season, showing that general manager Rob Hennigan is smart when it comes to paying for veteran players.
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The team didn’t overpay for Frye’s services, and that’s important. In fact, after a few months of play he could look a bargain. I’m betting on that being the case.
Another thing worth noting is the general outcry of Phoenix Suns fans upon learning Frye was leaving the team. They seemed to really like him around those parts, both the fans, players and management, and guys with a good character like that bring more than just numbers to an organization.
Frye will act as a mentor to the younger players on the team, as well as probably being heavily involved in the community too. You can’t put a price on these sort of skills, some guys just have it, and it is great for the Magic to have that sort of personality around this team.
If you didn’t know, Frye missed the entire 2012-13 season because of an enlarged heart. For a long time it looked like his basketball career was over. The fact that he has made it back is a miracle in itself, and you just know Frye has a whole new perspective on playing this game.
Yes he’s 31 and yes this may be his last stop as a player before hanging up his sneakers, but you’ve got to think he knows how lucky he is just to be playing the game he loves. This Orlando team will lose more games than they will win this year, and having a positive beacon like Frye with all of his life experiences will help this team navigate through these tough times.
As a player, Frye is the power forward who can stretch the floor really well because of his ability to make three point shots. Last year he shot 37 percent from behind the 3-point line, while his best ever average over the course of a year was 44 percent when in Phoenix.
You know who’s probably going to benefit a lot from this? Nikola Vucevic.
The Serbian center still has so much untapped potential, despite being a walking double-double. Last year teams were able to zone in on him and bully him in the paint, despite his nimble footwork and great hands. He still did great work in the paint, but having a forward like Frye who will automatically draw defensive attention should open up much more space for Vucevic.
It won’t be the second coming of Rashard Lewis and Dwight Howard, but it will be effective against quite a few teams.
Frye is a guy who can score as well, and his 11.1 points last year don’t do his offensive game justice. With the Suns, he was not the go to guy offensively. He won’t be in Orlando either, but expect to see him hit closer to the 15 points a game mark.
For a team that ranked 26th in scoring last season, this will be badly needed. In fact, Frye could automatically become the best scoring big on this team, when you consider he can score in all manner of ways.
So as you can see, looking at what Channing Frye can bring to this Orlando Magic team, there is so much to like. Off the court he appears to be the model pro, and one who will be among the best mentoring veterans in the league next season. As a player, yes his best days are behind him, but he is in Orlando to contribute right away on the court.
With the possible emergence of rookie Aaron Gordon throughout the season, Frye may move into a sixth man role, and if that comes to be, it is one which may actually suit him even better on this team. He may not be able to help Vucevic as much on the court with his spacing, but he’ll create matchup problems for second units all over the league.
All of this, on an extremely reasonable contract. It’s pratically daylight robbery.