In Memphis, Mark Giannotto in a front-page piece writes the Grizzlies selecting Ja Morant and Brandon Clarke in Thursday's NBA Draft "provided hope for a fan base that desperately needed an injection of some by the end of last season." Grizzlies Exec VP/Basketball Operations Zach Kleiman passed his "first test," but he also "created several more tests for himself in the future." For the Grizzlies to "become a contender again, those decisions carry just as much weight as the ones he made in recent weeks." In the end, taking anyone besides Morant at No. 2 overall would have been "too risky for a green front office still trying to prove itself, locally and within the NBA" (Memphis COMMERCIAL APPEAL, 6/21).
DOING WHAT THEY CAN: In Atlanta, Mark Bradley writes Hawks GM Travis Schlenk deserves credit for "wrangling a lottery gone wrong and making it go right." The Hawks "cobbled together enough not-prime assets to gain access to the first pick outside the top three," and selected De’Andre Hunter No. 4 overall, and Cam Reddish at No. 10. But still at issue is "whether it’s a windfall." Hunter "could well become a useful piece on an upper-tier team, which the Hawks aren’t yet." Schlenk "did his job," and the Hawks' roster is "significantly better" as a result (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 6/21).
TIME FOR PLAN B? YAHOO SPORTS' Jason Owens writes it is becoming "increasingly clear" that Celtics President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge’s "stockpile of assets and draft picks isn’t going to pay off with immediate returns." The Celtics on Thursday selected Indiana's Romeo Langford in the first round, but last season’s "disaster has morphed into a brutal offseason with a failed bid for Anthony Davis and the seemingly inevitable departure of Kyrie Irving." Celtics C Al Horford is "walking out the door," and the Celtics are "sitting on a mountain of cap space that no elite free agent appears to be interested in" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 6/21).
