After being waived by the Chicago Bulls Thursday, Trenton Hassell agreed to a one-year guaranteed contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves Tuesday, worth in the neighborhood of $600,000 to $650,000.

"It feels good," Hassell said. "I have a little security right now. I know I will be playing somewhere."

Hassell was waived by the Bulls when he and his agent, Mark Bartlestein, did not agree with the club that it was in Trenton's best interest to be placed on the Bulls' injured reserve list.

The New Jersey Nets, Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors also showed interest, with the Heat going so far as to call Hassell "the best defending-No. 2 guard in the NBA" according to Hassell's financial advisor Jeff Cates.

Lucious Harris will be out for at least five games after the Nets placed him on the injured list with "lower back pain" yesterday. Harris suffered the injury Thursday in a preseason game against Philadelphia. Harris, whom the Nets signed to a two-year, $5 million deal in the offseason, was in visible pain. Scott said that Harris had an undisclosed back problem last season.

The Nets picked up the fourth-year options on Jason Collins and Richard Jefferson and declined to pick up the option on Brandon Armstrong. And they got down to 12 active players by putting Lucious Harris (back), Tamar Slay (left shin) and Damone Brown (back) on the injured list.

"Martin's sprained right thumb has him day-to-day, and very much up in the air for the game in Toronto. Harris' bad back is severe enough that he'll see the doctor again today or tomorrow, and has coach Byron Scott preparing to face the Raptors without him."

"(Kenyon)Martin, who had his thumb bent back and left Thursday's game in considerable pain, is considered day-to-day, and the team doesn't know exactly how long he'll be out -- but even the worse-case scenario doesn't involve him missing more than a game or two."

"Kenyon Martin and Lucious Harris left the Nets preseason game last night in Philadelphia with injuries of undetermined severity."

Martin hurt a ligament in his right shooting thumb and Harris has back trouble.

Alonzo Mourning revealed yesterday that a chiropractor had found nerve damage in his neck, but the Nets center said he will be fine for Wednesday's season opener in Toronto.

"I must tell you that they're not making the kind of progress that we had hoped would be made in terms of clarifying what's going to be going on," Stern said yesterday in a telephone news conference in which he discussed a variety of topics. "And it continues to be a source of some concern to me based on that clarification."

"The judge presiding over the manslaughter trial of the former New Jersey Nets star Jayson Williams granted a change of venue in the case yesterday, moving the trial from Hunterdon County to adjacent Somerset County."

Scott has yet to decide who he will start at center. It was assumed Mourning would start after the Nets gave him a four-year, $22 million deal this summer. But the Nets don't really know what to expect from Mourning, who sat out last season with a kidney illness that can flare up at any time. They want to keep his minutes to 20-to-25 nightly. Knowing that, Scott has to figure out how to use Mourning within those parameters.