CLEVELAND, Ohio -- With the defense tilted toward him once again, LeBron James whipped a pass to Channing Frye on the left wing. As Miles Plumlee closed out, Frye pump faked before driving into the lane for a running right-handed banker.

In another year, Frye might have hoisted a contested 3-pointer or perhaps waited for one of his teammates to pop open. Not this year. This is a different Frye, one who has added to his offensive arsenal, hoping his expansion will keep him a fixture in head coach Tyronn Lue's tight rotation.

"Yeah, I have to stay who I am, but also I have to do other things," Frye told cleveland.com Tuesday night. "I look at the game like, 'How can I impact it not just standing there?' Just try to be active offensively setting screens, doing stuff like that, but I'm also trying to be active driving the ball to the hole, finishing, one-dribble pull-ups and stuff like that. Just playing ball and not being robotic. Just evolving."

When the Cavs acquired Frye nearly two years ago, then-GM David Griffin spoke about Frye's ability to space the floor, a perfect fit for a team built to bomb 3-pointers.

Since then, he's become a unique weapon off the bench, the kind few teams can deploy.

His 3-point reputation -- a career 39 percent shooter -- forces bigger defenders away from the paint, opening driving lanes for teammates. When they load up to stop drives, Frye is ready to catch and fire. He canned nearly 41 percent from beyond the arc during one of his best shooting seasons in 2016-17 and was the team's fifth-leading scorer.

Despite that, Frye got limited playing time in the Eastern Conference Finals against Boston and then logged just 11 total minutes in five NBA Finals games. The same thing happened the year before against the smaller, more athletic Golden State Warriors.

So after being plastered to the bench in back-to-back championship series, Frye decided it was time to change.

"For me I said, 'Well, two Finals and I haven't played a whole lot so I have to evolve something,'" he explained.

Those tweaks are obvious. During Tuesday's 123-114 win against the Atlanta Hawks -- a night the Cavs buried a season-high 20 triples -- Frye didn't attempt one. The only other player to receive extended minutes and fail to take a shot from beyond the arc was Tristan Thompson. All six of Frye's points came inside, going 3-of-4 from the field.

"I was like we're going to work on this every day and I figured by March it would kick in," Frye said with a smile. "But it's moving a little faster. Eventually they're going to have it on a scouting report -- Channing doesn't dunk and all he does is right- and left-handed filets."

According to Frye, a filet is a nice, soft layup.

"It was a joke at first," Frye said of his unique terminology that leads to chuckles around the locker room. "But for me I'm not going to be able to dunk it every single time because I'm getting up there in age, so just being able to add a nice touch and finish around the rim. It's just a joke. I work every day, they will tell you, I work every day on different aspects of my game and making sure I can do things when called on."

This season, Frye's outside shooting numbers are surprisingly low, making a shade below 32 percent from long range. But his field goal percentage (50 percent) has never been better, showing the improvement he's made in other areas.

He's 18-of-21 (85.7 percent) in the restricted area, counting those filets every game. He's 12-of-20 (60 percent) on midrange jumpers, only missing five shots all season from inside 16 feet. This year, 51 percent of his attempts have been 3-pointers.

There are plenty of games remaining, opportunities for those numbers to start dropping, but it's a significant change from the 2016-17 campaign. In 74 games, he was 44-of-69 (63.8 percent) in the restricted area. He was 43-of-80 (53.7 percent) on midrange jumpers, missing 62 shots from inside 16 feet. A whopping 64 percent of his shot attempts were 3-pointers.

He's much more than a standstill shooter. The defense has to account for him in other ways.

His presence unlocks important aspects of the offense, defenders unwilling to leave him when he sets screens, often creating buckets for sharpshooter Kyle Korver.

"Just having him on the floor, the chemistry that him and Korver have together in that second unit is unbelievable," Lue said. "Channing's gotten better at passing the basketball in split action. When he catches it, he has a half shot right to the DHO (dribble handoff). Just his activity and movement with him and Korver together has been great for us."

An improved defender, Frye has battled traditional centers inside, with the Cavs boasting a defensive rating of 104.0 with Frye on the floor and 111.8 with him off.

During the Cavaliers' turnaround, Frye has become a key member of the "Bench Mob." Only that wasn't the plan.

When training camp broke, Frye got bumped from the rotation. Kevin Love was the starting center and Thompson was sixth man. There wasn't a place for Frye. Lue even apologized to him, telling Frye that, barring an injury, he wasn't going to have much of a role.

"This is a business," Frye said, when recalling that conversation. "For me I was like, 'OK, do what you've got to do. I'm going to be ready when you're ready.' He put me in, I was ready and now I'm here."

Thompson's injury, an extended absence that sidelined him for 19 games, gave Frye his chance. And he capitalized -- even if he didn't view it like that originally.

"Until Ty says, 'Channing we're going to put you in' I don't think of anything," Frye said. "I think of what I'm asked to do every day and I'm going to go about my business that way. Just approach that. I have to work for me. Again, I will go crazy because there's so many ups and downs, especially in my situation.

"Like tonight I usually go in at like six or three minutes to go in the first quarter and I didn't go in until the second quarter. That could have messed me up if I had an attitude of, 'I gotta get the same touches or same looks.' I don't get the same touches or same looks. I just have to play basketball. If I'm comfortable doing everything then I can be OK with that."

On Tuesday, the choice was simple. Easing Thompson back slowly, Lue wasn't planning to play him in the second half anyway. That allowed Frye to get 15 minutes, right around his recent average. But soon enough, Thompson will have his wind back. He will no longer be on a minutes restriction. What happens then?

"Channing is a professional," James said. "Wasn't playing early in the season, continued to work like professionals do and when his number was called he was ready to go. He's been huge pretty much every game since he's been playing."

A mainstay last season, Frye started the year on Team Burn Cycle, a moniker he, of course, came up with as the team's jokester, referring to the amount of miles spent riding a bike in the hallway to stay loose.

But he's worked his way back into the lineup while getting a chance to show his improved game. Now it's up to Lue to decide whether that's finally enough.