With Frye, Magic pick mentor for young team

NBA veteran Channing Frye, right, will fill leadership void left by Jameer Nelson and Arron Afflalo, Brian Schmitz says.

The Magic just didn’t pay for Channing Frye’s basketball services. They are paying him to run their day care, too.

As any parent knows, finding the right person to watch your kids is money well spent. You can’t put a price on the maturity and professionalism that Frye will bring to this NBA nursery, although the Magic figured it was worth about $32 million over four years. You’d ask for the moon, too, to babysit this brood. The Magic are so young and impressionable that they need chaperons and curfews. Top pick Aaron Gordon is18, and they’ll surely award custody of him to Frye, 31.

Without question, they have turned their locker roomover to Frye for the next four seasons— or however long he’s in Orlando.

At this salary, he’ll willingly serve as a role model no matter what CharlesBarkley says about the position. Think Grant Hill without the star power andbumleg.

Aneight-year veteran, Frye will fill a mentoring void left by JameerNelson and Arron Afflalo. He’ll be the old hand who’ll have to weather the inevitable losses and teachVictor Oladipo howto lead soVictor can become the face of the franchise.

TheMagic have gone through the Shaq Era, which was long on talent and short on intangibles. They watched as DwightHoward grewinto a star but not a leaderwhotook responsibility seriously.

Fans certainly are desperate for the return of the Shaq and Dwight days, and so are theMagic.

ButGMRobHennigan is determined to install a culture rooted in character and class in this latest renovation, a team-building exercise nowheading into its third season and offering no hint of a completion date.

This kind of stuff sounds corny and cliché-ridden, but it’s important to theMagic— perhaps nowmore than ever.

The clubwon’twaste its time on knuckleheads, speaking of Indiana Pacers guard Lance Stephenson.

Stephenson can seduce with his skills, and theMagic have enough cap roomto try to sign him. But he acted like a goofball even after Larry Bird told him to cool it. Then there’s the dog-eared police report charging Stephenson with domestic violence.

Last season, theMagic bought out ticking timebomb GlenDavis, even though BigBaby brought tools to the court they needed. They couldn’t afford to have him infect the youngsters, and his fatewas sealed after his late-night assault on a motel computer keyboard.

Frye can give teammates a grown-up perspective: He sat out the 2012-13 season after discovering he had an enlarged heart, limited to nothing more strenuous than golf and yoga.

At the time, hewas more concerned about his daughter, Mergaux, then 20 months old, whowas blind until undergoing five cataract surgeries.

Asweet-shooting 6-foot-11, 245-pound power forward, Frye returned last season with the Phoenix Suns, averaging11.1points and 5.1 rebounds. He appeared in all 82 games, enough to convince the ever-cautious Magic that hewas healthy, knock onwood. He’s merely a pricey piece to the puzzle.

Other teamswere in pursuit of Frye as a free agent, but theMagic apparently outbid everyone at $8 million a year. The count and the amount caused furrowed brows across the league.

The pending signing of Frye is a reminder toMagic fans that owner RichDeVos never has been afraid of spending money or— when needed— venture into the luxury tax. Whether it’s used prudently is always the question (see Rashard Lewis).

Frye didmake $6.4 million last season with the Suns, though. Get used to it: TheMagic might have to overpay players a little to land them, considering they are not at the top of most free agents’ wish list.

Fryemakes a dent in their accrued cap space, but the Magic must take what they can get while they’re on the rebound.

Channing Frye is solid, nothing more, nothing less, on the court and off. More important, he’s the kind of personwhomtheMagic want bringing up their kids.