Channing Frye is one of my favorite Phoenix Suns players. I have a bright, DayGlo orange shirt bearing his name and number (a purchase decision that really makes my fellow Sun Devils fans angry, due to his University of Arizona heritage) and I made sure to pick him up at the start of the season for my Yahoo! fantasy team.
↵Not only is he versatile (listed as both a PF and a C), but Frye scores the majority of his points from beyond the arc, which is a separate statistical category altogether. He has amassed 57 blocks on the season (not bad), turned the ball over only 51 times, and has nailed 112 three point shots, the highest total for all centers by a wide margin (17 more than Al Harrington of the Denver Nuggets).
↵Frye is statistically the 39th best player in the NBA this season, and is the 10th best center. The craziest part of this? Only five NBA players have made more threes than Frye this entire season! He's basically a tall shooting guard, and that center eligibility makes him very valuable.
↵Marcin Gortat and Channing Frye have formed a solid chemistry together, endangering Robin Lopez' minutes and giving the Suns a much-needed midseason boost. While some Suns fans recently called for Frye to stop getting as many minutes, that talk has died down with his improved play and the wins piling up for the PHX.
↵This could all be a short-term pattern, with Frye reverting back to being a role player. But after putting up 31 points against the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night, it's safe to say that he's finding his groove in 2011.