Channing Frye RPM (via Men in Blue Podcast)

[shadrock]

So I was listening to the latest edition of the Men in Blue Podcast (highly recommend this pod btw), and they were talking about a lot of really interesting stats to do with our Magic. But the bit that really stood out was the Real Plus Minus (RPM) stats, which is effectively a more accurate was to quantify the impact a player is having while he is on the floor (better than the usual +/- anyway). Our boy Channing is currently 11th in the whole league in this stat, and when you look at the top 20, its freaking incredible. So it got me thinking, should we be giving Frye more credit for this turnaround?

Heres the top 20 and the link:

http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/sort/RPM

2015-16 Real Plus-Minus

1 Russell Westbrook 11.08
2 Stephen Curry 10.29
3 Kawhi Leonard 10.27
4 LeBron James 7.98
5 Kyle Lowry 7.74
6 Draymond Green 7.45
7 Kevin Durant 6.77
8 Paul Millsap 6.73
9 Tim Duncan 5.69
10 DeAndre Jordan 5.31
11 Channing Frye 5.17
12 Kevin Love 5.02
13 James Harden 4.99
14 Chris Bosh 4.92
15 Jimmy Butler 4.61
16 Chris Paul 4.58
17 Andre Drummond 4.52
18 DeMarcus Cousins 4.43
19 John Wall 4.28
20 Paul George 4.12
21 Blake Griffin 4.08

I mean, I know you can always say its only one stat, don't get too carried away etc, which is true in a sense, but when the rest of the top 20 are almost a spot on representation of the consensus top 20 players in the league, it makes you think a bit. Is he our hidden gem? Would love to hear the thoughts of you guys.

[tooler]

You ain't seen nothing yet.



One of these players takes 4.5 field goal attempts per game.

[Jameerthefear]

I'm sorry for doubting you Rob

[rcklsscognition]

It shouldn't be surprising. Vaughn never taught Oladipo and Payton how to get Frye the ball. All he had to do was watch Frye YouTube videos and see how he played in Phoenix.

[shadrock]

Wow theres another crazy stat haha! I mean, surely this would suggest we should be playing him more and letting him shoot like 15 shots a game at least right? For me personally, I think I just have a general dislike towards Frye hidden in my subconscious somewhere, possibly because hes slow and seems a bit soft, and well just doesn't fit the mould of the kind of basketball player I like to watch. But maybe I need to recalibrate things a bit.

[shadrock]

I definitely find myself saying "god damn you Channing" when he makes mistakes, like they were expected, whereas when he does something good in more like "well that's what we expect when you get paid that much to shoot you big doofus".

[shadrock]

It shouldn't be surprising. Vaughn never taught Oladipo and Payton how to get Frye the ball. All he had to do was watch Frye YouTube videos and see how he played in Phoenix.

Zach Lowe is adamant that we had him available for trade for basically anything a little while ago. We pretty much just said if you want him he is yours from what Zach was hearing. So even the team had kinda given up on him working too.

[tooler]

It makes sense that RPM loves him since he barely saw the floor early in the year when we sucked, and now our new starting lineup is obliterating teams (for the most part). Just look at the +/- from tonight's game against the Pelicans. The formulas must see that.

This also takes a little bit of the sting out of losing Millsap. I mean, if he had signed we might be leading the conference at the moment (hah) but at least Frye and Smith have been decent consolation prizes. And their contracts end sooner...

[jgosche]

That's why I don't get why everybody hated him so much. He's always seemed like a vocal leader and good team presence but there's not a lot he could do under Vaughn. Playing under a good coach has allowed him to produce.

[shadrock]

It makes sense that RPM loves him since he barely saw the floor early in the year when we sucked, and now our new starting lineup is obliterating teams (for the most part). Just look at the +/- from tonight's game against the Pelicans. The formulas must see that.

This also takes a little bit of the sting out of losing Millsap. I mean, if he had signed we might be leading the conference at the moment (hah) but at least Frye and Smith have been decent consolation prizes. And their contracts end sooner...

No but that's my point, that maybe the improvement after the line-up change is largely a result of him being on the floor.

[npiper17]

So I was listening to the latest edition of the Men in Blue Podcast (highly recommend this pod btw), and they were talking about a lot of really interesting stats to do with our Magic. But the bit that really stood out was the Real Plus Minus (RPM) stats, which is effectively a more accurate was to quantify the impact a player is having while he is on the floor (better than the usual +/- anyway). Our boy Channing is currently 11th in the whole league in this stat, and when you look at the top 20, its freaking incredible. So it got me thinking, should we be giving Frye more credit for this turnaround?

Heres the top 20 and the link:

http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/sort/RPM

2015-16 Real Plus-Minus

1 Russell Westbrook 11.08
2 Stephen Curry 10.29
3 Kawhi Leonard 10.27
4 LeBron James 7.98
5 Kyle Lowry 7.74
6 Draymond Green 7.45
7 Kevin Durant 6.77
8 Paul Millsap 6.73
9 Tim Duncan 5.69
10 DeAndre Jordan 5.31
11 Channing Frye 5.17
12 Kevin Love 5.02
13 James Harden 4.99
14 Chris Bosh 4.92
15 Jimmy Butler 4.61
16 Chris Paul 4.58
17 Andre Drummond 4.52
18 DeMarcus Cousins 4.43
19 John Wall 4.28
20 Paul George 4.12
21 Blake Griffin 4.08

I mean, I know you can always say its only one stat, don't get too carried away etc, which is true in a sense, but when the rest of the top 20 are almost a spot on representation of the consensus top 20 players in the league, it makes you think a bit. Is he our hidden gem? Would love to hear the thoughts of you guys.

I look at that list and think 'well done Channing' followed quickly by 'damn you Paul Millsap.'

[eyriq]

Back to his RPM all-star ways it seems.

[OrlDave]

This just goes to continue to underline how really, really bad a coach JV was. With the exception of Vic, everyone seems to be flourishing. Well Vic, Mario and AG, but I'm hoping the latter two are just a function of time and it will all work itself out.

[ezzzp]

Yep, Frye, Smith and Nicholson inserted into the rotation opens up the lanes for everyone...floor spacing is crucial to this roster.

Those drives by Vuc tonight don't happen without the PF pulling his man out of the lane.

[flying_mollusk]

It's interesting to watch the parallels with the Suns. They won 48 games 2 years ago, and a lot of that was attributed to Frye's ability to draw the defense out. A lot went wrong with that team in the subsequent years, but I wonder how much of that can be attributed to Frye.

Now we are winning a ton of games with Frye being properly used by a good coach.

[Optimus_Steel]

Well Rob knows what he is doing, it didn't work out last year but he knows what he is doing in signing Frye giving how our roster is built. Obviously JV has major deficiencies which kept us from playing to our potential. Now we got a real system and real coach and players strengths are being used correctly. Teams are terrified of helping off of Frye because he is such a good 3pt shooter. They interviewed Clifford the Cha coach before our recent game and he said that he was very afraid of Frye because he is capable of making 2 or 3 quick 3's which change the whole dynamic of the game and how they defend. Vuc is getting room to operate because teams are afraid of Frye, the other players are getting more open lanes because of the same reason. So yes he is very important for our spacing and his defense and rebounding have been decent enough. Our offensive rating in recent weeks has been among the best if not the best and he is a big reason why.

[SHAQ32]

I just shake my head when people are blindly criticizing Frye. He doesn't put up the basic box score stats that most fans look for but he's been super-efficient, and with Coach Skiles his defense has gotten back to where it needs to be. Frye really opens things up and our offense looks completely different when he's on the floor.

I understand coach is trying to get other guys minutes, but I do wish Frye played more minutes in the 2nd half of games.

[zelenooq]

It is not same if you have 5 attempts or 15 because you choose that 5 attempts (open shoot) and 15 attempts mostly choose you

[mr2good]

He's back to being the game changing offensive player he was in Phoenix. He's a huge reason the magic are so successful this year.

Dare I say it, his contract is starting to look like a bargain!

[Orlwillbeback]

this is the big reason we signed him imo. Last year was completely weird but I guess there are alot of reasons why he was so bad last year.