Tennessee origins

Avery Johnson has referred to Trenton Hassell as “Tennessee” Hassell a few times in public recently. Hassell is a native of the Volunteer State and graduated from Austin Peay, which is in his hometown of Clarksville, Tenn. But that’s not the whole story. Hassell explained why in the locker room before the game, pointing to Brandon Bass, who was stretching on the floor, to help tell the story.

“His name is Bass, my name is T-Hass, so when [Johnson] would say Bass, I would think it was me. When he was saying T-Hass, he thought it was him,” Hassell said. “We didn’t know who he was calling, so we had to come up with something to verify who it was. That’s how it stuck.”

Now Hassell hopes to stick in the rotation. He’s got a shot with more performances like the one he had against Toronto. Hassell’s perimeter defense helped shut down the Raptors’ 3-point shooters, especially in the third quarter.

“He’s been in my lab a little bit, so I’ve been running him a little bit after practice,” Johnson said. “He’s been in the rehab program. We didn’t like the way he looked about 10 days ago, so we’ve been working on him a little bit here recently trying to get him in better shape, get his foot speed a little quicker and get his shot down.

“He helped us last night. Now it’s going to be a matter of getting a level of consistency.”

Hassell understands the situation on a roster that includes Josh Howard, Jerry Stackhouse, Eddie Jones and Devean George.

“This is a great team,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of talent at the 3 position and I knew that coming in that some nights were going to be the night I play. You’ve just got to prepare yourself no matter what.”

So does he have an idea before games if he’s in the plans or not?

“You never know,” Hassell said. “You never know.”