Channing Frye finding new life

Channing Frye was signed to spread the floor and take the defense’s attention. After a year of struggling to fit in, Frye has found himself contributing.

It was something easily written the moment the Orlando Magic signed Channing Frye last summer. It was the story easily told about the Magic’s new acquisition.

Channing Frye was going to transform the team. His shooting was respected around the league and he would force a defender to stay attached to his hip at all times.

That would free up lanes for the guards to drive, it would increase the Magic’s 3-point shooting. It would give them a weapon they had never had before.

It would do so much.

And it did not in his first year of a four-year deal. Frye was a disappointment because his defense simply made him a liability on the floor. His offense could not make up for those shortcomings and the team suffered for it.

Frye could still do all those things. A new coach brought a new opportunity. Within a few hours of his hiring, Scott Skiles said he spoke with his veteran shooter. Frye said he was all in and ready and willing to buy in on the defensive end, trying to shed a perception (and a reality in 2015) he was a poor defender.

Pushed back into the starting lineup as Skiles ought balance, Frye has delivered that promise. He is beginning to look like that player the Magic signed last summer.

“He’s been very good,” Skiles said following the Magic’s 114-90 victory over the Bucks on Friday. “One of my concerns is when you get a new job and you try to change to more a defensive mentality is what are the veterans going to think about it. From the first time we spoke this summer, he was all in. We feel like he has been very good. He’s trying. Tonight he had Jabari Parker. He is trying to keep him from penetrating. But within the system he has been very good.”

It seemed a questionable fit on paper to put Frye on Parker or on Giannis Antetokounmpo when looking at the potential lineup sheet entering the game. How would Frye keep up with these young, athletic wings? Would Skiles have to end his rotation experiment and adjust his lineup quickly?

Those concerns appeared to be unfounded early on. He played off of Parker, forcing him to shoot more and closed down space. When the ball rotated away, he was in help-side position and closed the gap before a player got too close to the rim. He kept verticality and fouled when he got beat to prevent a shot.

“He’s accepted the challenge from coach from the start of training camp, especially on the defensive end,” Tobias Harris said. “You can see it out there, he’s not a liability. Our team defense is about helping each other. Once we do that, I think we’re really good on the defensive end.”

Frye’s meager nine-point score line was emblematic of all Frye could do. Because with Frye it is not the number of points he scores, but the gravity and attention he attracts just being on the floor.

In Friday’s game, Frye’s effect was evident. He had the highest net rating while he was on the floor of any Magic player. Orlando had a 143.9 offensive rating and 102.9 defensive rating — a 41.0 net rating. That means the Magic outscored the Bucks by 41 points per 100 possessions (the game was played at a pace of 101.2 possessions per 48 minutes).

The defensive number is still not good, well above the Magic’s average of giving up about a point per possession, but the offense outweighed the defense in this game.

The Magic got what they needed from Frye. They got the floor spacing and the attention to free up offensive players.

It is not Frye’s production as a shooter that matters, it is the threat of him doing so.

“Guys got to respect his shooting ability. It creates a lot of open lanes for me, Tobias, Evan, Vic, when he’s out there.” —Elfrid Payton

“Channing is a problem out there,” Elfrid Payton said. “Guys got to respect his shooting ability. It creates a lot of open lanes for me, Tobias, Evan, Vic, when he’s out there. He gives us an added dimension.”

Again, the numbers bear that out in more than just the individual game Friday.

The player with the second highest net rating when he is on the court. With Frye on the court, the Magic are better on both ends of the floor this season — a 107.5 offensive rating and 96.0 defensive rating.

The Magic’s offense nosedives to 98.0 with Frye off the floor. And that fated Vucecvic-Frye pairing? It is passable — 119.4 offensive rating and 102.1 defensive rating — in 79 minutes this season.

“He spaces the floor a lot, not only for me, but for everyone,” Nikola Vucevic said. “Having him on the floor, it spreads the floor. It’s tough to defend a big that can shoot. I know when I have to defend somebody who can shoot, you are not really used to it. A lot of teams just kind of stay with him and that opens up the floor. I like it and obviously it makes it easier for Evan [Fournier], EP and Tobias.”

That is, of course, exactly what the Magic signed Frye to do. This season entering Friday’s game, Frye is averaging 6.2 points per game and shooting a career-best 61.5 percent effective field goal percentage. The field goal percentages show what his effect could be.

The question is whether he can continue to sustain it and be a positive like he was Friday.

The answer really should be self evident. He has done this his entire career. It appears more his first season in Orlando was a bad defensive year more than anything else. At least that is the early return.

Whatever faults he has defensively, he is increasingly making up for with his offense. And that is all the Magic asked for him in the minutes they would play him.

Next: Orlando Magic win big, but not satisfied

At long last, the Channing Frye effect is in full effect.