I imagine IF we had interest at all in Frye, it'd be primarily taking on his contract and getting a future asset for doing so.
Neil could be guessing on the price of Leonard, and feeling like he doesn't want to pay that price, so striking now to potentially get a 1st is attempting to carry that asset value over.
I'm uncertain of details on that final year of his contract, I see it both ways.
I don't think the deal(if there were one) is a ton about Frye the player. I think he'd get 15 minutes a night hitting 3s, and would likely lead to small increase in vonleh minutes.