2. He has playoff experience
The Lakers will be relying plenty upon their young guys to make the difference between just barely making the playoffs and going deep into the postseason on a run that could even take them all the way to the NBA Finals if things go well. But youth alone doesn’t get it done.
To that end, the Lakers added playoff-tested vets like Rondo, Stephenson and McGee to teach their young guns what to do and what not to do in the postseason. Frye would’ve also been one of those been-there-done-that vets. He won an NBA world championship in 2016 in Cleveland and made another trip to the NBA Finals the year after that.
Earlier in his career, Frye played in the Western Conference Finals as a member of the Seven Seconds or Less Phoenix Suns in 2010. Steve Nash and company were very competitive with Kobe Bryant’s Lakers, taking them to six games before tapping out.
After struggling with his shot early in that series, he made nine of 20 threes in the last three games of that series as Phoenix fought back from a 0-2 deficit to come within a Ron Artest put-back from possibly being in a position to knock out the eventual champs.
A career 38.7 percent 3-point shooter in the regular season, Frye has taken his forte to another level in the playoffs, shooting 44.4 percent from deep. During his championship run with the Cavs in 2016, he shot a white-hot 56.5 percent from beyond the arc in 17 playoff games. The following year he shot 51.3 percent from distance in 12 playoff games that culminated with an NBA Finals loss.
When the bright lights of the NBA playoffs go on, grown men like the 35-year-old Frye rise to the occasion and step up their production. It wouldn’t have hurt the Lakers to add one more guy like that.