Now, as an exercise, you should try to figure out why NBA GMs value those two so differently, starting from the assumption that they’re not morons who are light-years behind.
Haha, yeah, I did that already. Here are a few hypotheses:
1. "Per 36" (as Kliq notes). Though I think the Millsap Doctrine totally applies to Chriss, since he's a young, elite athlete who can run all day, has a reasonably low foul rate (3.7 per 36), and has been playing starters' minutes since the WCS trade (and playing even better in bigger minutes than he had before).
2. Winning team v. losing team (as Kliq notes).
3. Chriss got tagged with the "bust" label early in his career — in part by being miscast at age 19-20 as a perimeter player in a dysfunctional Suns system — and those are hard to shed.
4. EST bias.
5. Most GMs are not morons, but even the smartest ones make mistakes.
6. Chriss apparently told his agent that he didn't want to play anywhere but GS, which was presumably made clear to potential suitors.
Marquese Chriss is freaking awesome, tho — you guys would love him if he were on the Celtics. As I noted, he does pretty much everything well: rebound, pass, defend the rim, switch on D, see the floor, pass, run the floor, catch, finish at the rim, shoot FTs. High motor and (seemingly) high character. He went head-to-head against Bam as the starter a few days ago, and basically played him to a standstill. Also BBQ chicken'd Derrick Jones, Jr.
The only thing he doesn't do well (yet?) is hit threes, but he at least takes them occasionally, and his FT% and misspent youth as perimeter player suggest some promise in that regard (more than Bam has, anyway). For his part, Bam's a bit heavier and (to date) the better passer and overall defender. Chriss has great tools on the defensive end, tho (as the block and steal numbers suggest).
Anyway, taken together, I think the two players are pretty interesting illustration of the fine line that sometimes exists between a guy who nobody wants and a league darling who's arguably top 10-20 in terms of trade value.