Channing Frye has struggled to live up to the four-year, $32MM contract he inked with the Magic last July, Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel writes. “I think the first half [of the season] was a little tough,” Frye said. “I put a lot of pressure on myself to just automatically get acclimated to what was going on.” In 60 appearances for Orlando this season Frye is averaging 7.7 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 26.9 minutes per game.
Here’s the latest from the Southeast Division:
- Frye also acknowledges that he had some difficulty acclimating to former Magic coach Jacque Vaughn‘s system, Robbins adds. The veteran is finding things much improved for him under interim coach James Borrego, especially on the defensive end, the Sentinel scribe notes. “Overall, I love the city,” Frye said. “I love this opportunity to play with these guys. After the [coaching] change, I think it’s really for me, in my personal opinion, been a breath of fresh air with J.B. I’m not saying that it wasn’t awesome before. But I’m just saying the way his philosophy is a little different, it’s a little bit more my style.”
- When discussing the Heat‘s D-League affiliate in Sioux Falls, Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said, “it was responsible of us to invest in the D-League,” Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post relays (Twitter links). Spoelstra acknowledged that the distance between South Beach and South Dakota doesn’t make for the most convenient arrangement, but the most important thing is that the ownership and culture was aligned, Lieser adds.
- The Wizards are being patient about filling their lone remaining roster spot, which was created when the team waived Glen Rice Jr., Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post writes. Washington is currently considering various options including players from overseas and the NBA D-League, Castillo adds.
I think with what the Heat have done this year, they’ve sort of found a great way to find under valued assets, kind of like what happens in baseball. Obviously, its not like they are the only team using the D-League, as 18 teams have ties to the league with their own affiliate, but they’ve been able to find multiple rotation players. Pat Riley is known for not being much of a fan of utilizing the draft, and I think this is one new reason as to why. There is a lot of talent not currently in the NBA right now, and if you establish a good connection to the D-League, you have a better shot at preparing players for an eventual potential callup by putting them in your system before hand.
The magic additions this summer made sense in the fact that they needed shooting(frye, gordan, ridnour). But they really needed a new coach and some defense players. They have no one to protect the basket down low and neither of their future guys shoot, neither does Harris. They have individual pieced that are nice but not a team.