What Went Wrong: Channing Frye
Rob Hennigan spent major money for the first time on floor-spacing stretch-4 in Channing Frye. His first year did not work out well at all.
The Orlando Magic spent two years really clearing cap room as they began rebuilding. Rob Hennigan had to clear out some of the mess left over from trying to appease Dwight Howard and the salary cap hell that wrought.
The summer of 2014 was the first time the Magic spent some money. Even a modest amount to bolster the roster.
The Magic needed some 3-point shooting to free up space for their developing guards and a stretch-4 seemed to be the right place to spend some money. And that is how the Magic spent a four-year, $32 million contract on a 31-year-old stretch-4 to accomplish that goal.
Frye was going to be the shooter to spread the floor and be the veteran voice in the locker room to lead the young players.
How much of that came true? The intangible parts of leadership likely came through. Maybe not as much as the team would have wanted in translating to wins.
The primary part — his contribution on the floor — did not come through.
Frye averaged 7.3 points per game, his fewest since 2009 when he was still with Portland, and shot 39.3 percent from beyond the arc, the second best of his career. So how do you rectify the struggles from Frye?
“It was tough,” Frye said. “I think I came in here, I had expectations of what I wanted to accomplish. Regardless of my stats, because at the end of the day, I try to be about winning. We didn’t win. We didn’t give ourselves a chance to win enough games. For me, I’m going to go back to teh drawing board. I think it’s humbling. But these things happen. I’m going to work hard this summer and be ready to go next year.”
Frye decidedly did not work this season.
He was able to shoot the ball and shoot it well, but that was about it. And the perception is that he did not shoot the well. Shooting was the easy part. It was the other things that gave Frye problems throughout the year.
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Frye admitted it was a difficult season for him. He felt like he did a lot of standing and an early season knee injury knocked him out of shape when he returned. He was not the same player he was in Phoenix both because of a schematic fit and because the Magic’s offense was still pretty unimaginative and basic.
According to NBA.com, Frye traveled 1.6 miles per game and 3.0 miles per 48 minutes this season with Orlando. Last year in Phoenix, Frye traveled 1.8 miles per game and 3.1 miles per 48 minutes. His average speed remained the same at 3.8 miles per hour.
Frye traveled virtually the same distance, but the lack of movement and motion within Orlando’s offense was a little bit off-putting. And the injury had Frye losing confidence in teh other parts of his game.
It was a horrible mesh between Frye and Vucevic. With the two on the floor together, the Magic posted a 110.5 defensive rating, but just a 99.9 offensive rating. The team had only a 47.5 percent rebound rate with the two on the floor together.
The pairing simply did not work. And Frye found himself coming off the bench by December, starting intermittently when injuries called for it and not playing by the end of the season to give way to younger players.
The thing he could do well, he never really did consistently. He scored more than 15 points just five times and more than 10 points just 23 times. Most of his 75 appearances were spent in single digits. And no matter how statistically well he shot from beyond the arc, it did not fit well with what the team was trying to do.
Frye’s offense never could cover up his defensive shortcomings. The whole experiment blew up on the Magic, even though they got off to a relatively good start with Frye playing major minutes and working back from an injury.
Whoever the new coach is will have to figure out the right way to use Frye or, more or less, discard him completely.
Frye did a good job understanding at the end of the year that he needed to give way in the rotation. He kept his feelings professional and was thankful the Magic were up front about the reduction in his role.
“Things happen in a season, ups and downs,” Frye said. “I don’t take anything personal. I’m a pro. I come out here and get my work done. I’ll be ready whenever you call my name. Coach has to do whatever is best for the team. We communicated about it. I understood where he was coming from.”
That probably cannot remain the status quo with what the Magic invested in Frye and how important they felt he would be to spreading the floor.
In 2015, it did not work at all. Frye was not the floor spacer the Magic needed. He did not boost the offense much and the defense suffered more with his presence in the lineup.
The Magic’s biggest free agency acquisition of the Rob Hennigan era did not pan out in Year One. And the team’s struggles throughout the season certainly could be pinned on this misstep.