In Defense of Channing Frye

Since the news of Kyrie Irving’s request to Dan Gilbert has become public, a lot of ideas have been thrown around. Spend enough time of various basketball sites, and you will see literally hundreds of potential Kyrie Irving trades posted, often with the use of the ESPN Trade Machine. While this is no surprise, the other Cavaliers many fans and some media members want to include in these deals may be.

Many people have come to look at a Kyrie Irving trade as a way to fix several of the personnel issues this franchise has. You will hear that the Cavaliers can help themselves match up better against the Golden State Warriors, add young talent, and decrease their luxury tax payments in one fell swoop. While that may be true, all ways to decreasing their tax payments are not equal in terms of benefiting the franchise.

Two players who are often mentioned as possible salary dumps as part of any Irving deal are Iman Shumpert and Channing Frye. The logic is the both players have struggled against the Warriors—Frye defensively, and Shumpert offensively. The thinking is that both are easily replaceable, and that both players’ time with the Cavaliers has run it’s course. While that may be true with Shumpert, there’s little evidence that is the case with Frye.

While Frye may struggle against the Warriors, that simply puts him in the category known as Nearly Every Big Man in the NBA. He’s still an extremely effective, if somewhat unconventional, big man. No Frye isn’t a banger down low, and his thin frame and lack of quickness limit him defensively, but he has real strengths that have benefited the Cavaliers tremendously.

First and foremost, there is his shooting. Frye shot an excellent 40.9% from three last season, good for 17th in the NBA. He is particularly good both from the corners and the top of the key, critically important on a Cavaliers team that runs a lot of pick-and-roll, pick-and-pop, and drive-and-kick plays. Frye’s outside shooting helps increase the Cavaliers’ lineup flexibility as he has been effective in lineups with either one of fellow big men Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love, as well as serving as the sole big man in small ball bench lineups.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHTO8iRCfKw

A great example of Frye’s impact are the last two playoff series against the Toronto Raptors. While Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas was able to score effectively against Frye, he struggled on the defensive end, failing to either protect the basket or come out to the perimeter and guard Frye effectively. Since Frye was hitting threes versus Valanciunas hitting twos, the Cavaliers were able to win this matchup regularly. It’s not the conventional way big men have been effective in the NBA, but it is effective. This effectiveness shows up in advanced metrics as well. Frye is consistently rated well by ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus statistic, finishing in the  top 20 for power forwards in each of the past two seasons, and ranked behind only the Big Three of LeBron James, Love, and Irving among Cavaliers last season. He is a net positive when he steps onto the court. In fact, when he has played against the Warriors, Frye has been as effective as any bench player outside of Jefferson, as shown by his performance last Christmas.

Frye’s greatest strength outside of his shooting is arguably his professionalism. Whether he’s starting, coming off the bench, or not playing that night, Frye prepares for each game without a complaint. He is regularly up and cheering for teammates regardless of his own performance, something that isn’t true for some of his teammates. Along with Richard Jefferson and James Jones, Frye has been one of the most important voices in terms of keeping the Cavaliers’ locker room mood both light and professional. Frye’s teammates seem to like and respect him, and it has been stated several times that his attitude and outgoing nature upon his arrival in 2016 helped the rest of the Cavaliers appreciate what they had, and was a factor in them coming together as a group on their way to winning the NBA Championship. Frye is also great with the media, and his work on the Road Trippin’ Podcast alongside Jefferson and Cavs sideline reporter Allie Clifton is one of the best podcasts around. Teams need players with Frye’s character.

While some suggest that Frye is overpaid, his contract his actually pretty good for his skill level and production. With one year and $7,420,912 remaining on his contract, Frye’s deal looks more than fair when compared to those given to similar stretch fours such as Ryan Anderson, Marvin Williams, Darrell Arthur, Kelly Olynyk, and Trevor Booker as well as role playing big men such as Timofey Mozgov, Amir Johnson, Kenneth Faried, and Ian Mahinmi . While it’s true that Frye’s contract likely has more value in a trade than Shumpert’s because it is an expiring deal, that’s another reason—on top of his solid play—why Frye shouldn’t be given away.

Finally, Frye’s greatest value for the Cavaliers may be the simple fact that he is a quality big man on a team with just three of those. Maybe Edy Tavares will be. Maybe the Cavs will acquire another big when they trade Irving, but neither of those things are definite, or even likely. Look through a list of free agents who are still available. If the Cavaliers had to replace Shumpert they could try for cheap deals with the likes of Tony Allen, Mike Dunleavy, Gerald Green, K.J. McDaniels, or Anthony Morrow. None of those are significant downgrades, and some could be considered improvements over Shumpert. If Frye was dealt without a replacement, there are no big men who can shoot like him available. The best you could do would be older players like Boris Diaw, or non-shooters like Lavoy Allen or Tyler Zeller. Even if they aren’t effective against the Warriors, teams need several quality big men to make it through the season. Not only is Frye an effective big man, his strengths perfectly fit the Cavaliers in ways no free agent would.

Despite the arguments above, none of this is to say that Channing Frye shouldn’t be traded. If a deal comes along that truly makes the Cavaliers a better team, then of course they should be willing to include Frye in a deal. That’s true for any of their players. But the idea that Channing Frye is dead salary that the team should just dump? That’s just absurd.