Cleveland Cavaliers: Channing Frye’s three-point shot will be missed

The Cleveland Cavaliers traded Channing Frye prior to the trade deadline, and his presence has been noticeably missed.

While the trade deadline brought the Cleveland Cavaliers three young, blooming players and one veteran leader, it also took away one of the Cavs best three-point shooting bigs, Channing Frye. That three-point shooting ability has already been and will continue to be missed.

Although the Cavs brought in dynamic shooters in George Hill, Rodney Hood, and Jordan Clarkson, they have not been an elite three-point shooting team since the trade deadline.

Before the deadline, the Cavs were making 12.2 threes per game and shooting 37% on such shots, respectively ranking No. 2 and No. 8 among all NBA teams. However, following that deadline, the Cavs, who supposedly brought in more shooting, have struggled. They’ve made just 9.6 triples on 31.2% from deep, respectively ranking No. 16 and 27.

As for Channing Frye, his ability to spread the floor in the second unit will be missed, quite possibly more than another attribute that the Cavs traded away. Frye, who only played 12.8 minutes per game, has a +8.9 per game, on-court plus/minus. The team played well around him, and it was partly due to his three-point shooting, averaging 0.7 triples on 33% from deep.

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While those numbers might not be eye-popping, the effect that they had on the team and LeBron James himself should not go unnoticed.

Frye and James averaged just 8 minutes per game during 32 games this season, but even in limited minutes, when they were together along, the Cavs excelled. The Cavs scored 19.5 points on over 50% from the field and made 2.4 threes on over 40% from the field when the two were both on the court.

Frye’s departure combined with Love’s injury has proven to be detrimental to Lue and his ability to vary lineups. Although the Cavs can still surround James/Clarkson (their main playmakers) with shooting, that shooting is certainly not what it could be since without Love on the court the Cavs don’t have a three-point shooting big. Nance and Thompson both, even if left wide open, wouldn’t shoot the three-ball, limiting what the Cavs can do offensively.

While that’s not the worst thing in the world for Cleveland, it does shrink the court, directly hurting their three-point shooting. James numbers have not taken a hit from the lack of spacing, but a player like Jeff Green, who significantly benefited from that floor spacing, has been drastically worse from behind the arc following the deadline.

Many factors come into play when talking about why the Cavs have yet to be the same three-point shooting team. However, we’ve seen that LeBron James and many of his Cavalier teammates succeed around Channing Frye, and without him, this team and more specifically the second unit have not succeeded like many hoped for.

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They had to do it in order to bring in all the pieces they wanted to, but was it worth it? Only time will tell.