The Phoenix Suns, the Playoffs, and the Saga of Channing Frye

Channing Frye is back.

After wallowing in a 1-for-20 shooting rut in the first three games of the series with the Los Angeles Lakers, he went 4-for-8 from the field last night, all three-pointers, as the Phoenix Suns improbably evened out the series, 2-2.

Frye was a new addition to the Phoenix Suns’ roster this year. But there may not be another single player who better embodies the Suns than he does.

On the court, Channing Frye doesn’t fit in with anybody. He’d fit in with other centers (he’s 6’11″) if he added 20 pounds and banged around in the post. He’d fit in with other 3-point snipers if he wasn’t so dang tall. And he’d fit in with European sharpshooting bigs if he didn’t grow up and go to school in Arizona.

With the Suns, though, he belongs.

The Suns plucked Frye out of free agency in the summer of 2009, where he’d been left by the Portland Trail Blazers. He’d dropped to 4.2 points and 2.2 rebounds per game, trying to pick up minutes where he could behind the deep frontcourt of Greg Oden, Joel Przybilla, and LaMarcus Aldridge.

Phoenix had just 19 days before traded Shaquille O’Neal to the Cleveland Cavaliers. At the time they only had two centers even on the roster—Robin Lopez, who had just finished his rookie season, and Louis Amundson, who had just wrapped his first full season in an NBA uniform (they eventually also added Jarron Collins off waivers, just before the season started—also from Portland).

So Frye joined the Suns as the de facto starter. It barely registered on the larger NBA meter—he became a sleeper fantasy league pick because of increased playing time, but that’s about it. He had been the #8 overall pick in the 2005 draft, and his career had faded each year. Obscurity was winning the battle.

But the Phoenix Suns are no ordinary team. In 2009 they had missed the Playoffs for the first time in five years, despite posting a decent 46-36 record in the uber-competitive Western Conference. They had tried to trade for Frye before, because they believed he had what they needed.

They were right.

Right off the bat Channing Frye exploded in his new role as the Suns’ starting center—a center who was free to prowl on the perimeter and encouraged to play his own game. His second and third games in a Suns uniform put him back on the NBA map: 22 points on 6-for-7 from 3-point territory against the Golden State Warriors, and 25 on 6-for-10 from downtown against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Yeah, he fit in with the Suns. Having a bulky center in the middle hadn’t worked for Phoenix the year before, as Shaq had filled the paint and restricted Steve Nash’s need to drive. Frye didn’t hang out in the paint, and further forced opposing big men to come guard him on the perimeter instead of protecting the rim. It gave Nash all the space in the world, and he was on board.

“We’re not a big bulky team,” Nash said, before the season had even started. “We’re smaller and more skilled. That allows me to be creative and make plays for my teammates.

Suns General Manager Steve Kerr agreed.

“With Channing,” said Kerr, “we hit the jackpot.”

But the criticism the Phoenix Suns so frequently take was shortly leveled to Frye, as well. You can’t keep up that shooting pace. You don’t play any defense. You won’t hold up in the Playoffs.

Frye’s shooting, for one, held up quite well. He continued to put up big numbers through November and December and his percentage stayed up all year. It didn’t make him into a traditional center, though, and in November he ranked 29th among centers in rebounding, with a paltry 5.4 per game.

It was the team that turned out to be streaky; after a blistering-hot 14-3 record to start the season they fell on their faces in December, going 7-9 for the month.

They righted the ship eventually, but somewhat at Frye’s expense. He lost minutes and his starter’s job to Robin Lopez, who had come into his own as a physical post presence. The Suns got hot again, and by season’s end rose to the #3 seed in the West.

Which brings us back to the Playoffs.

It’s only been in the Playoffs that Frye’s critics have been right. He lost his confidence in a big way against the Lakers, and despite a green light hesitated on his shots. The Suns finished the regular season as the second-best three-point shooting team in history, but Frye was 1-for-20 when it really, really counted.

Any traditional team might have benched him, or at least asked him to change his game. But this is what has made the Suns great this season.

Coach Alvin Gentry and the Suns understand, better than any other team in the NBA, about giving someone a chance. They’ve built one of the league’s deepest benches out of unknowns like Goran Dragic and Lou Amundson. They know about streaky shooting; they know the touch will come back.

That’s why Frye still had the green light in Game 4, and that’s why he was able to hit a quartet of 3-pointers that broke the Lakers’ back and evened the series 2-2. The Suns still have a long way to climb if they’re going to show their face in the NBA Finals, but they have a great chance to do it if their shooting is hot—and Frye’s is too.

Regardless, we know he’ll be playing his game, because that’s how the Suns play theirs. They bring in players that they want, and cut them loose to do what they do best. That’s why everybody’s happy, and as we’ve seen from this team, players play better when they’re happy.

It’s certainly true for Channing Frye.

“In New York, none of us really knew what was expected of us,” he said. “We just went out and tried to win games. In Portland, they wanted me to be a big, banging center in the paint, and that’s not really my game, either. But the Suns see what I can do and they are letting me do it, and it’s great.”