Should Cleveland Cavaliers Pursue Channing Frye?

Trades around the league are becoming official, which means the NBA’s ‘silly season’ has began. Reports are indicating the Orlando Magic are shopping Channing Frye– is he a player that the Cleveland Cavaliers should be chasing?

Orlando were the first team to get the 2016 trade deadline officially started, as they sent Tobias Harris to the Detroit Pistons for Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova, via Chris Broussard and Brian Windhorst of ESPN.

As a result of this move, the Magic are also looking for a new home for Frye, as the 32 year old is averaging just 17.1 minutes per game this season, despite shooting at some career-best numbers. Marc Stein of ESPN first announced Orlando’s desire to move Frye.

ESPN sources say Orlando has been trying to move Channing Frye in advance of Thursday's trade deadline. He's... https://t.co/6p2mlKdmO5
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) February 16, 2016

If you’re David Griffin and the Cavaliers, chasing Frye makes sense on many different levels.

First off, it is becoming clear that Griffin isn’t fully confident or satisfied with the Cavs current roster. He has deemed no one on the roster as ‘untouchable’ (take that with a grain of salt of course- LeBron James isn’t being traded) and there are rumors saying Iman Shumpert, Timofey Mozgov and Kevin Love (for another superstar) are all available.

Griffin shouldn’t need to trade any of those guys for Frye though, as his contract, which has him getting paid $7.8 million this season and $7.4 million next season, fits into the traded player exception that the Cavaliers created from the Brendan Hayward deal.

So, hypothetically, Cleveland could acquire Frye for basically nothing. It is possible Orlando will ask for a little more for Frye but the Cavs are low on trade assets. Apart from some second round picks in 2016, 2019 and 2020, the Cavs don’t have much to trade to the Magic, so the hope will be that the TPE will be enough for Rob Hennigan.

Ilyasova brings a very similar skill-set as Frye to the court, thanks to his capability to space the floor as a big and hit the three-ball. With Frye struggling to get minutes already this season, it is hard to see how his playing time will improve with Ilyasova now in the fold. Unless the Magic is planning to move Ilyasova as well, Frye becomes a valuable piece that isn’t apart of Orlando’s plan.

This is where Griffin should be calling Hennigan and shouldn’t be hanging up until the deal gets done.

A need for the Cavaliers is to get some more floor spacing off the bench, especially from their bigs. Apart from Love, the Cavs are devoid of floor-spacing big-men. Tristan Thompson, Mozgov, Anderson Varejao and Sasha Kaun all shrink the floor rather than space it. None of them have range that extends out to the three-point line and hence bog down the offense when they take the court.

Frye is shooting 39.7% from beyond the arc this season, the second highest mark of his career. His effective field goal percentage is 56.5% and he is shooting 90.5% from the foul line, another area where the Cavs have had this struggles this season.

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The Cavaliers shouldn’t overthink this one. By acquiring Frye, the Cavaliers bench would be bolstered with shooting, floor spacing and a veteran presence in the locker-room. Finding scoring off the bench has been hard to come by for Cleveland and Frye would fit the bill.

Frye also isn’t a liability on the defensive end, as Orlando has a better defensive efficiency rating with him on the court (102.2) compared to off it (103.5). Cleveland wouldn’t be asking Frye to be a difference maker on the defensive end of the floor though. His shooting and the floor spacing he would provide, which of course opens up driving lanes for James and Kyrie Irving, should be enough for Griffin to feel a sense of urgency to try and pry Frye out of Orlando and take on the Luxury Tax implications that would come with it.