Orlando Magic Player Evaluations: Channing Frye

Channing Frye became the Orlando Magic’s first big free agent signing under Rob Hennigan. Unfortunately his first year exposed many weaknesses in the plan.

Channing Frye will hold the title of Rob Hennigan’s first major free agent signing.

Hennigan’s tenure as general manager is not tied to Frye or anything. Frye is still ultimately a role player. But it was a pretty decent-sized statement as the team professed its desire to start winning more that he spent a significant chunk of change to bring in Channing Frye.

The initial season of his four-year deal turned out to be a disaster.

Nothing the Magic cannot recover from, but Frye’s failures and the miscalculations that came from management about Frye and how he would fit with the team was a constant and consistent storyline throughout the season.

Soaring Down South

Frye had the reputation of being a knock-down shooter. The way Jeff Hornacek used Frye on pick and rolls with point guards Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic and the way Frye could knock down 3-pointers trailing the play in transition helped spread the floor and bring the Suns to the Playoffs’ door step last season.

Orlando did not have a lot of shooters. To put a marksman at stretch-4 with the team’s budding core and seeming defensive mentality (the Magic finished middle of the pack in defensive rating in 2014), could potentially help the team take the necessary step forward.

It logically made so much sense.

The whole plan collapsed pretty quickly though. Frye injured his knee in training camp and missed a good chunk of training camp, putting him behind both physically and in getting used to his teammates.

When he did get on the floor, Frye and Vucevic struggled to mesh defensively as both struggled rotating laterally and covering each other’s mistakes in the pick and roll. Jacque Vaughn‘s inconsistent defensive schemes left the Magic’s back line exposed as neither could play together.

The stats with Nikola Vucevic and Frye on the floor together were harrowing — 110.5 defensive rating — and the whole thing just did not work.

That does not mean things cannot work in the rest of Frye’s four-year deal. But it meant the 2015 season was made that much more difficult by this major miscalculation.

And as the newcomer and first big free agent of this rebuild, Frye takes the brunt of public criticism.

Next: The Good and The Bad

The Good and The Bad

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/28/2015.

Frye came to Orlando with such high expectations. There are so few players with his size and shooting ability. He literally changed the game for the Suns. He had 5.3 win shares for the Suns in 2014 and was a big part of what made that team unique.

Orlando seemed to feel it was copy and paste Frye into the team’s lineup and the floor would open up and give the team the ability to drive through the paint, kick out and succeed.

Things are never that easy.

The defensive problems were gigantic. Orlando’s defensive rating with Frye on the floor according to NBA.com was 107.4 points allowed per 100 possessions. The team was absolutely abysmal with Frye on the floor on that end and seemingly even moreso when Frye was paired with Vucevic.

Already, the Magic’s ideal starting lineup was rendered somewhat useless.

Frye did not even work that well with the offense itself. The Magic posted a 99.9 offensive rating with Frye on the floor, only slightly better than the 99.6 offensive rating the team posted overall. This was not the kind of impact the Magic expected from Channing Frye.

On his part, Frye shot the second best 3-point percentage of his career, making 39.3 percent of his 3-point field goals. However, Frye averaged only 1.8 3-point field goal makes per game and 4.6 attempts per game (thanks Rich for correcting the error!), the second fewest he has had in his career since he started taking 3-pointers as part of his game.

Worse yet, Frye took almost exclusively 3-pointers — 71.0 percent of his field goal attempts came from behind the arc compared to 53.0 percent in that vaunted year in Phoenix.

When fans felt the Magic misused Frye throughout the season or Frye was not letting it fly like he usually did, the numbers bear that out.

It was a pretty bad season overall and even anything positive you could say about Frye seem pretty hollow.

Next: Best Game of 2015

Best Game of 2015

March 6: Magic vs. Kings
22 pts., 7/11 FGs, 6/9 3FGs, 10 rebs.

This game was a major rarity.

Channing Frye grabbed at least 10 rebounds in just two games all season and at least eight rebounds in just eight games. Frye is not a rebounder — and as was noted around the Lottery, the Magic’s chances of winning the Lottery were the same as Frye grabbing a rebounder on any given possession. So maybe Orlando used up all that ping pong luck in this game.

This game against the Kings at home late in the season was very much what the Magic imagined they would be.

Victor Oladipo scored 32 points in one of the best games he played all season. He pushed the pace, attacked the basket and made jumpers, making the defense pay for ignoring him.

Tobias Harris contributed 19. Andrew Nicholson came off the bench with 14.

Frye though was the true difference maker, playing alongside Dewayne Dedmon starting at center.

Frye was a team-best +21 for the game. More importantly, he just hit his shots. No other player had a simpler directive.

More impressively, Frye made 7 of his 10 uncontested field goals in the game. Heck, he got 10 uncontested field goals in the game.

Oladipo and Elfrid Payton were able to get into the paint and collapse the defense, kicking it out to Frye for open jumpers. That is exactly how the Magic offense was supposed to work. If teams left Frye open, he made them pay.

What more could you ask for? At least for this game.

Next: 2016 Outlook

2016 Outlook

Channing Frye is not going anywhere. Even with his front-loaded contract (his contract will decrease over the course of the contract), he has $23.4 million due in the next three years, according to Basketball Insiders. That will be difficult to move, especially if Frye continues to struggle on the defensive end.

And this goes even with the increase in the cap that is due really to kick in next summer. It makes it very hard to get anything of value for Frye — and the length remaining on his deal does not help.

Expect Frye to be on the Magic next year, regardless of who the coach is. And like many players, Frye desperately needs a new coach to use him properly.

Of course, Frye is also 32 years old. His defensive shortcomings are not going anywhere. If the Magic will play him major minutes, the new coach will have to find a way to scheme around these shortcomings.

Frye can make himself more valuable by feeling freer to take shots and making them. He can still do that at an incredibly high rate.

This shows Frye still has value in the league. He just needs to show it.

At the end of the day, Frye may not be a great fit in Orlando. His pairing with Vucevic was a complete disaster and that makes the signing immediately a poor one unless it can be remedied in the remainder of his time. But the Magic and Frye have to make the best of things and hope for improvement.

Next: Final Grade

Final Grade

Channing Frye was not that player. More than anyone else, he would be judged on his production on the floor and how he performed there. And that performance was simply not good enough.

He shot a high percentage for his career, but did not shoot enough. Nor did he get enough open shots. Blame some of that on coaching. Blame a lot of Frye’s problems on coaching and their inability to figure out how to use him.

But Frye also did not perform. It seemed like he missed a lot of shots in big moments. His defense was a negative overall and exposed the weaknesses both in the Magic’s defensive schemes and in Nikola Vucevic. Maybe that will be good in the long term as the team grows and develops. But it is still a costly lesson to learn.

Frye is going to do what he does. He is the player he is at this point. The Magic should have vetted that more clearly in signing a player on the wrong side of 30.

Logically, he could have been the missing piece to keep the floor spread. That is not how things worked. Even with Frye making shots at a decent clip, teams did not stick to him like they stuck to Kyle Korver or other great shooters. Frye needed better dribble penetration and better offense from the guards to free himself up. He is not a mover and cutter, he needed the help.

Frye can still salvage his tenure with the Magic. Better usage is going to free him up for more shots. But it will be tough to cover up the defense with the Magic’s current makeup.

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The Magic were a very young team. Most of the players on the roster were not going to be judged completely on their production on the floor. They were judged on their development and continued improvement.

Channing Frye was not that player. More than anyone else, he would be judged on his production on the floor and how he performed there. And that performance was simply not good enough.

He shot a high percentage for his career, but did not shoot enough. Nor did he get enough open shots. Blame some of that on coaching. Blame a lot of Frye’s problems on coaching and their inability to figure out how to use him.

But Frye also did not perform. It seemed like he missed a lot of shots in big moments. His defense was a negative overall and exposed the weaknesses both in the Magic’s defensive schemes and in Nikola Vucevic. Maybe that will be good in the long term as the team grows and develops. But it is still a costly lesson to learn.

Frye is going to do what he does. He is the player he is at this point. The Magic should have vetted that more clearly in signing a player on the wrong side of 30.

Logically, he could have been the missing piece to keep the floor spread. That is not how things worked. Even with Frye making shots at a decent clip, teams did not stick to him like they stuck to Kyle Korver or other great shooters. Frye needed better dribble penetration and better offense from the guards to free himself up. He is not a mover and cutter, he needed the help.

Frye can still salvage his tenure with the Magic. Better usage is going to free him up for more shots. But it will be tough to cover up the defense with the Magic’s current makeup.

Next: Orlando Magic Player Evaluations: Willie Green