Cleveland Cavaliers: Five best bench players of the 2010’s

#5: Channing Frye

Reserve big Channing Frye originally came over in a three-team trade near the 2016 deadline from the Orlando Magic, of which the Portland Trail Blazers were involved as well.

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Frye turned out to be a heck of a contributor in his time here, and in the 2016 championship run, he was a big bench piece. Frye turned out to be a very effective reserve catch-and-shoot three-point marksman, which was invaluable for Cleveland in two runs to the Finals with him on the roster.

Frye did not play a boatload of minutes for the Cavs at just 15.2 on average, but he was very efficient.

He had 6.7 points, and shot 39.2% from three-point range on 3.4 attempts per game, to go with 3.0 rebounds per outing, according to Basketball Reference.

In the postseason with Cleveland, Frye also came up big when he was in games in spurts, as he knocked down 54.1% of his triples, and Frye was a good finisher inside, too.

In the 2016 postseason, Frye had an effective field goal shooting clip of 78.3%, as noted by Basketball Reference.

Frye, as fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers know, was also an exemplary teammate, and endeared himself to the fan base as much as anybody. I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to not like Channing.

Though Frye was a piece traded to the Los Angeles Lakers at the 2018 deadline by Cleveland, his easy going personality was seemingly the main reason that the Cavs brought him back for the 2018-19 season, which was his last in the NBA. With the Cavs shifting to a full-rebuild pretty early on then, he was an especially great locker room presence for young players.

In his time with Cleveland, Frye, previous Cavs sideline reporter (and now of Spectrum SportsNet/the Lakers’ studio host) Allie Clifton and fellow former Cleveland reserve Richard Jefferson even started their own podcast, “Road Trippin,'” too.

Frye now can be seen NBA TV’s “NBA GameTime” as well.

Clearly, Frye was such a crucial piece for the Cavs in his time with the Wine and Gold, and you could see that with how many big shots he made in his minutes off the bench.