NBA Rumors: Latest Trade Buzz Surrounding Channing Frye and DeMarcus Cousins

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Ah, basketball—sweet, sweet basketball.

We’re so very glad you’re back.

The heyday of the trade season is over, but as the games that count begin to creep nearer and nearer, there are still rumors floating around the league.

Let’s take a look at ‘em.

The Channing Frye Flea Market

According to Grantland’s Zach Lowe, the Orlando Magic are willing to deal veteran forward Channing Frye on the cheap.

Here’s Lowe, who was writing about how the Cleveland Cavaliers could potentially replace Tristan Thompson amid his holdout:

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The Cavs are not totally without options if Thompson holds out for months. The corpse of Brendan Haywood left behind a $10.5 million trade exception, and the Cavs can trade a future first-rounder that would almost certainly become a 2018 pick. That’s enough to start talks for someone like [Ed] Davis once he becomes trade-eligible on December 15, or even Markieff Morris if he pipes up again. Sources around the league say Channing Frye is available now for very little, though Magic officials deny it. Other names will hit the market, but while the salary of someone like Kenneth Faried doesn’t quite fit the exception, how much would Denver really demand to dump J.J. Hickson into it?

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Frye has suited up for four different NBA teams. His best season came in 2010-11 with the Phoenix Suns, where he averaged career highs in scoring (12.7 points on 47.7 percent shooting) and rebounding (6.7 boards).

His numbers have fluctuated throughout his journeyman time in the pros, but one thing has been consistent: He’s just a role guy.

Thompson exploded into a game-changing presence in the 2014-15 playoffs. Frye won’t explode into anything.

But if the Cavs are just looking for a healthy, versatile big—the 6’11” Frye is a capable shooter with a career mark of 38.6 percent from downtown—then they could take him off Orlando’s hands.

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Outside of Kevin Love, Cleveland really didn’t have a threat to step out of the paint and beyond the three-point line. James Jones was there, but if you consider him “a big,” you need to do some personal reflecting.

Assuming Lowe’s report is correct, now might be the best time for the Cavaliers or another team to make a move for Frye.

Buy low, sell high—right? 

Are Karl and Cousins Cool? For Now

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In what we can only imagine as an a capella version of Fetty Wap’s “Again”—I want you to be my center again…Boogie—Sacramento Kings coach George Karl reportedly apologized to DeMarcus Cousins for pouring a bucket of gasoline on some burning trade rumors last year.

Back in April, the 64-year-old coach implied that his star 7-footer could be on the market.

“I’ve had some great players and I’ve never had one player that I have said is untradeable,” Karl said, per James Ham of CSN Bay Area. “You always got to be ready for the possibility of a great trade that could come your way.”

At the time, those words raised more than a few eyebrows.

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Throw that together with Cousins’ “snake in the grass” tweet in June—which seems to be common among players with whom Karl has clashed—and the Los Angeles Lakers' reported interest, per ESPN's Marc Stein, and it all made sense.

Boogie was out. He had to be.

Well, the summer sun has turned into a brisk fall wind, and Cousins is still a King.

Was there a truce?

At Sacramento’s media day last week, Karl dropped a bomb on CSN’s Kayte Christensen, which Ham relayed on Sunday:

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For the first time in public, Karl gave a mea culpa that went largely unnoticed. 

“To be honest with you, I apologized to DeMarcus for making the trade comment that I’ve never coached a player that’s untradeable,” Karl told Christensen. “That was wrong for me to say, because you all (the media) took it and blew it up into crazy.”

“But it’s my responsibility to be smart enough to not say things like that,” Karl continued. “So I did apologize because I thought that was the only thing, maybe some other things, but really the only thing that got us separated was that comment that then everybody wrote the we’re going to trade [Cousins].”

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Let’s not jump to the conclusion that Cousins and Karl are now BFFs and will go get manicures together. These guys are both fiery, strong personalities who will not back down.

This won’t be the last we hear of them butting heads.

At least, though, the coach apologized for putting some unneeded media heat on Cousins and the team as a whole.

The waters in Sacramento are calm now. Let’s see what happens the next time they get a little bit rough.