Suns Basketball » ChanningFrye

FanHouse Preview: Suns vs. Blazers

Fanhouse NBA Blog - suns — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 21:37:04 +0000

Filed under: Suns, Trail Blazers, Playoffs

Shoals and Ziller preview each NBA playoff series.

The Blazers will miss Brandon Roy, but the Suns still miss Shawn Marion, so get over it, Oregon! Despite devastating news that Roy must leap into that surgical void (devastating even for a neutral fan), there's plenty of fun to be had between the Suns and Blazers. Just don't ask Andre Miller's face to provide it.

Full Coverage of Suns vs. Blazers: Schedule, News and More

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NBA Players in the Halloween Spirit

Fanhouse NBA Blog - suns — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:58:37 +0000

by Elie Seckbach

Filed under: Clippers, Lakers, Suns, NBA Videos, FanHouse Exclusive

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

Halloween is one of those holiday that everyone loves ... including NBA players.

In this FanHouse exclusive, we catch up with NBA stars Amar'e Stoudemire, Eric Gordon, DeAndre Jordan, Ron Artest, Kyrylo Fesenko, Channing Frye, Craig Smith, Goran Dragic and Lou Amundson.

Find out who is most likely to be Hugh Hefner, Magic Don Juan, a lumberjack, Frankenstein and an Army vet.

Check out the video after the jump.

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Suns’ Frye Suddenly a Three-Point Threat

Fanhouse NBA Blog - suns — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:58:36 +0000

by Tim Povtak

Filed under: Suns

Suns general manager Steve Kerr -- one of the league's all-time best long-distance shooters -- would love to take credit for the sudden three-point-shooting prowess of newly-acquired center Channing Frye.

But he won't. And he can't.

"Yes, I worked with him for a couple days after he signed, and boom, he started hitting three-pointers,'' Kerr joked before a game in Orlando earlier this week. "We knew he could shoot -- it's why we signed him -- but not quite like this.''

Frye, a low-budget signing this summer, has had a stunning start, factoring heavily into the Suns' (4-1) early-season success.

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Doing Lines: Kobe, ‘Melo, Mayo Drop 40

Fanhouse NBA Blog - suns — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:58:36 +0000

by Brett Pollakoff

Filed under: Grizzlies, Hawks, Lakers, Magic, Nuggets, Raptors, Suns, NBA Last Night

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

It's not every day that we get to see a player hit for 40 points or more in an NBA game. So on Sunday, when we had three different players meet or surpass the mark, it's definitely something worth discussing.

Especially when two of them did it in the same game.

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Rebounding Focus Pays Off for the Suns

Brett Pollakoff — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:45:00 +0000

Filed under: Clippers, Suns

LOS ANGELES -- Rebounding is all that Suns' head coach Alvin Gentry has been talking about during the preseason, and with his team being an undersized bunch who would rather try to run you off the floor than stand toe-to-toe and slug it out, that's completely understandable.

But the emphasis on taking care of the boards had its consequences in the team's season opener on Wednesday, as Phoenix -- yes, the extended remix of the Seven Seconds or Less Suns -- managed just two fast break points in their game against the Clippers.

The ultimate result, however, was a positive one. The Suns' focus on rebounding enabled them to hang with a big and talented Clippers' front line, and pull out a hard-fought, last-second 109-107 road victory in Los Angeles.

"We've got to get out and run more," Gentry said, when discussing his team's lack of points in transition. "We get so conscious right now of trying to guard the boards, you know, the offensive boards -- which I thought we did a good job on -- that sometimes it limits us a little bit as far as getting out on the break.

"We still got 109 points, even though we didn't get any fast break points. And really, some of the things they don't call fast break points .. if we come down and we run a drag, and we get a wide open three-pointer, we consider that a fast break point. So it's really a little bit distorted, but they did do a good job as far as getting back and keeping us from running."

Phoenix held a 22-15 rebounding advantage at the half, thanks to seven from Grant Hill, and five each from Jared Dudley and Earl Clark off the bench. They finished the game with just one more board than L.A., but the fact that they were able to compete at all with guys like Marcus Camby and Chris Kaman down there shows how serious the team is about making the glass work a top priority.

"It's never really easy to rebound against those guys, they're seven-footers," Amar'e Stoudemire said afterwards. "Both guys are great rebounders out there. But I think from a team effort we did a great job, really attacked the boards, really boxed out well. Me and [Channing Frye] were trying to keep the big guys off the boards, and Grant was coming in and getting the rebounds, so from a team standpoint we did a pretty good job."

Stoudemire and Frye combined to grab just nine rebounds, while the aforementioned Clippers' duo came away with a combined 20. But as Amar'e mentioned, as long as someone like Grant Hill can swoop in when he's doing the blocking out, things will turn out okay. Even if the fast break opportunities might not be there because of it.

Hill finished with a team-leading 13 rebounds, which is a huge number for him.

"The year we won 62 games we got out-rebounded on the offensive boards 55 times," Gentry pointed out. "But for this team to be successful, we've got to find a way to rebound the basketball."

The Suns did that on opening night, against a Clippers team that -- at least going in -- appeared to have a significant advantage.

Rebounding Focus Pays Off for the Suns originally appeared on NBA FanHouse on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:45:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Suns Pay Ben Wallace $10 Million to Go Away

Tom Ziller — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:28:00 +0000

Filed under: Cavaliers, Hornets, Pistons, Suns, NBA Transactions

The trade of Shaquille O'Neal was just as intriguing from the Phoenix side as it was the Cleveland end, even though the Cavs got the best player (by far) in the exchange. While clearly a cap-cutting move for the Suns, the return package of Sasha Pavlovic and Ben Wallace provided a flexible cap situation in which Phoenix had the potential to offer a retiring Wallace to a cash-hurt team needing to unload a well-paid player.

That particular avenue was closed Monday, however, as Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic reports the Suns bought out Wallace's $14 million contract for $10 million. Coro reports Phoenix went forward with the buy-out in order to maintain a reasonable payroll after signing Channing Frye ($2 million) and Grant Hill ($3 million) last week. But in the process, a long-rumored Wallace-for-Tyson Chandler deal goes kaput.

Since New Orleans agreed to send Chandler to Oklahoma City for expiring contracts in February -- a trade that was rescinded when OKC's doctor didn't like the looks of Chandler's ankle -- various something-for-nothing deals have been rumored, deals in which New Orleans takes back as little salary as possible. Wallace pretty much made sense, in that Phoenix needs a center following the departure of Shaq, and that Big Ben had made noise about potentially retiring (and leaving his $14 million on the table) after the Cavs' disappointing 2008-09 finish.

But apparently either Wallace overstated his disappointment, or the rumor had no legs. The buy-out means the Suns can no longer trade Wallace's contract. It's a boon to Robert Sarver's bottom line -- if you believe Phoenix will remain over the luxury tax threshold this season, the $4 million in salary saved in the buy-out equates to net savings of $8 million when you count the tax hit -- but won't help the talent base of a team that finished the season outside the playoff picture. (Of course, it's apparent the Suns would have had reservations about signing both Frye and Hill without having these Wallace savings in the pipeline.)

Under all this wonky cap talk, there's plenty to talk about with regard to Wallace himself, given the likelihood we might have seen his final professional game. He went undrafted 13 years ago, cut his teeth in Italy and on the bench in Washington and Orlando. Then, when he got a chance to shine in a city built on the back of hard work, the blue-collar beast ended up as a four-time All-Star, a four-time Defensive Player of the Year, and an NBA champion. Big Ben is one of the marvels of this era, and a real testament to the value of toughness over talent in certain roles.

Suns Pay Ben Wallace $10 Million to Go Away originally appeared on NBA FanHouse on Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:28:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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