Babbitt is very unlikely to be an upgrade over Martell.
Blake had a career year that year. If age catches up to Miller even a little bit, that won't pan out as a large upgrade.
Rudy was good as a rookie. Not sure Matthews is guaranteed to be better than Rudy was.
Of course, these are different types of players, so how it all plays out is a big question.
I would argue that Babbitt is going to neutralize the loss of Martell. Here's my thinking (I'm not not into unsupported conclusory statements); I think Babbitt will be better than Martell because of rebounding and consistent shooting. I was actually quite impressed with his rebounding in summer league, particularly on offense. He showed an instinct for the ball that guys like Camby and Keve Love have, and guys like LaMarcus and Amare don't. And I think Babbitt's shooting will be, once he's comfortable, more consistent if not a higher average than Martell making him a more predictable tool in the toolbox. Marty was really streaky. I think predictable makes for easier match up analysis by coaches, and better utilization. I got the feeling Martell was put in at times and the coaches just hoped he could score. When he missed a couple he'd get benched. Trial and error, but in the meantime the game could get farther away. Babbitt as a more reliable shooter would mitigate that. The one area I think Martell will be missed is his on the ball defense, I don't see Babbitt as good. But on the whole I think Babbitt will at least even out the loss of Martell's contribution.
I agree Blake had a great shooting year, but Miller is so much better at driving and diming. Numerically Miller does more, but being a poor shooting driving guard allows defenses to collapse which clogged the lane. One result was LaMarcus being forced outside even more and getting double teamed easier. I'm honestly still not sure how to rate this, but if I had to choose I'd rather have Miller.
I think Matthews is going to be a big upgrade as a defender and even though I agree that Rudy had a nice rookie year shooting, I'm assuming Matthews shoots at least the same as he did last year. Plus Matthews doesn't try to do too much and make stupid turnovers, like Rudy was particularly prone to last year, so I don't see how anyone thinks we didn't improve here.
Speaking of Rudy, I'm old enough to remember Bill Walton sitting out the '78/79 season. He ripped the organization for not giving him good medical care and advice, which is different than Rudy's situation, but I'm completely utterly unsympathetic to his complaints and how it's been handled. If I was PA, I'd happily let that stupid Spanish a**wipe sit in Spain for the next two years without playing instead of moving him. I've no patience for this morons who take cheap shots at my Blazers. They need to understand there's a price to pay and they won't $&^*$ like it. I see moving him for a first round pick as a capitulation. Don't encourage future prima donna's from pulling this crap by rewarding him with a move to a team he wants.
This was interesting to me. I wonder if this is how Jeff Ma approaches the analysis. There are so many variables I'm not sure you can break it down to these types of additions and subtractions but maybe someone wayyyy smarter than me has dialed it in.
