Channing Frye says the Cavaliers would have won Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals even if Draymond Green had played, cutting against one of the longest-running arguments from Cleveland’s title run. He said the absence mattered less than what LeBron James and Kyrie Irving were doing on the floor.
That debate is back because the 2016 NBA Finals still defines both teams for many fans, and Green’s suspension remains the sharpest point in the series. He was out for Game 5 after his fourth flagrant foul of the postseason, and Frye made it plain that he did not think the result changed because of it.
“Hell, no,” Frye said when asked if the Cavaliers would have lost with Green available. He said Cleveland had too much going for it that night, pointing to James and Irving each scoring 41 points in the 112-97 win and combining for nine 3-pointers. In his view, Golden State had lost its edge because Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli were down in the series, leaving no big man on the court and no Green to anchor the defense.
Frye’s argument goes to the heart of why Game 5 still gets replayed like a verdict. Green was the Defensive Player of the Year the season before, and he was not even permitted to be in the building, watching next door from the old Oracle Arena at the Oakland Coliseum. But Frye said Cleveland’s speed with James and Irving was overwhelming anyway, comparing them to two sword fighters and saying the action happened so fast that you could hear the noise and then look up and realize they were already gone.
He was not softening the point. Frye said, in effect, that Green would have needed more size and more reach to matter. Cleveland followed Game 5 with a 115-101 win in Game 6 and then a 93-89 win in Game 7, finishing the comeback from a 3-1 deficit and giving James his first NBA title as a member of the Cavaliers. That is why Frye’s view lands hard now: if the series ended with three straight Cleveland wins, the argument over one suspension may never really be about one night at all.
