Re: Windy: Cavs in talks for Frye
Why did his minutes go down in Portland even though Oden never played that first year because he got hurt? He was the 3rd big after Aldridge and Przybilla but failed to establish himself.
You cant rationalize away his 2nd and 3rd years in the league.
Nate McMillan just favors a certain kind of big, and Frye's skillset is/was a redundancy of Lamarcus Aldridge. Who is already a player who McMillan is trying to get to play "tougher" and more aggressive than he is already. So the last example McMillan wanted LA to follow was Frye and the way he played the game.
2 seasons ago, I pegged Portland as the team I would follow on the West Coast, anticipating Oden's rookie year, that didnt happen that year but I stuck with them on League Pass anyway. Early in the year they had like a 10-15 game winning streak or something like that and were playing like they would make the playoffs.
It was weird because at times it seemed McMillan wanted to play a smaller lineup. When it wasnt Przybilla/Aldridge, he would go with Pryz/Outlaw, Aldridge/Outlaw... and even tried Martell Webster and James Jones at the 4 spots in games i watched. But other times, it seemed he just wasnt a fan of Channing Frye and how he used his size on the court.
Channing Frye simply didnt play "big" enough for Nate for what I saw, I mean, he had a SHORT leash on him from the time he checked in the game. There were a few games I remember seeing him trot LaFrentz out there when he sat Aldridge down, just to set a tone for Aldridge and show him what he wanted his big men to do. I just checked the stats from that season and it showed Frye played in 78 of their games, but his minutes would fluctuate 5 one game and 20 the next, and the common denominator was usually Aldridge's foul trouble.
By my guess, it seems as though McMillan saw Aldridge and Frye as one and the same, with Aldridge of course being superior, and he would only play Frye extended minutes if Aldridge couldnt go or was in foul trouble.
I can understand that too. If your developing a young guy, and you want him to work on a weakness, you wont replace him every night with a guy who plays with only Aldridge's strengths. You know?
Thats my take on why he got buried and was never really given consistent time or a dedicated role.
