Tuesday, September 16, 2003

I was lookin for evidence anywhere saying that Hassell got his option picked up, and I finally found it in an article about his high school:
"On Thursday the Chicago Bulls decided Hassell had done such a good job during the first two years of his contract that they exercised their club option to keep the 30th overall pick of the 2001 NBA draft for the final year of his contract with the Bulls. '(Bulls General Manager John) Paxson fully expects Trenton to be a large part of the rotation, just like he has been in the last couple of years,' said Jeff Cates, agent and financial adviser to Hassell. As a member of the Bulls, Hassell has earned the nickname the 'Minister of Defense,' for his defensive abilities on the baskeball court. So it is no wonder why he has always earned the assignment of guarding the opponent's leading scorer and offensive threat, whether that happened to be Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson or Kobe Bryant."
This was an expected move anyway, but it was odd that I couldn't find this info anywhere else.

"Minister of Defense" eh? I thought that was Reggie White. Despite what his agent says, Trent will have a diminished role this year, and that should be obvious just be seeing that in the offseason they've added Pippen, Gill, and Hinrich to their guard/SF rotation. But Hassell can still be valuable to this team in limited minutes, he just needs to hit a jump shot or two.