5. Marquese Chriss – WS 2.5 (.037)
Drafted 8th overall in 2016
Marquese Chriss‘ selection came in an era in which the former general manager was intentionally selecting prospects who were going to take a significant amount of time to develop in an attempt to accumulate young talent who would grow and prosper together, then reach their primes all at around the same time to become a young, superteam.
It works on NBA2K – but it almost never works in real life.
And yet, there McDonough was, selecting a player who should have been a college sophomore with the 8th overall pick, and trading two other first round picks and Bogdan Bogdanovic, a former first round pick, just to get him.
Then Chriss basically did nothing for the franchise except get minutes he did not deserve, complain to the referees about EVERYTHING, regress offensively, and become a cancer for both the lockeroom and the fanbase.
Chriss left Phoenix after only two extremely disappointing seasons, averaging 8.5 points and 4.8 rebounds.
He will play through this current entire season at only 22-years-old, and in time, he may actually develop into a pretty decent role player, although had he stayed four years in college, not only would no team have wasted so much to draft him so high, but he’d actually only be a rookie as of this season.
Bonus: Archie Goodwin – WS 0.4 (.010)
Archie Goodwin was taken 29th overall in 2013, and while there was some hope that he could be a franchise point guard, that kind of pressure was never really placed on him so it is hard to consider him as having been in the top-five worst picks.
That said, based on his still being a first round pick, he never really showed significant improvement year after year, and he has basically already played himself entirely out of the NBA.
He was more bad than good.