What has more certainty, though, is that Pettigrew-Green Arena, in Napier, may be hosting the NBL playoffs this season following a Wellington monopoly in the past few years.
"We were told Sky TV would not come here to cover [because of the cost of moving gear from the major centres] but for some reason that decision has changed," Trass said last night although NBL board chairman Sam Rossiter-Stead could not be reached for a confirmation as he was in transit.
Trass said the last time the Bay hosted the final here was in 2005 when the Shawn Dennis-coached Hawks lost the final to the then Auckland Stars but they bounced back to beat the Stars away in 2006 for their maiden NBL crown.
He confirmed he had spoken with Pledger, Abercrombie and Leon Henry before the Hawks had finished recruiting in early February but no cigar.
"When I sussed them out Leon Henry was contracted to Otago. I talked to Alex but he was not interested in the NBL and said he was going to have a break so I took it to his word that he was intent on resting his body," Trass said, accepting the demands of ANBL would have left most players battered and bruised.
"Thomas was looking at doing other things but he didn't specify," Trass said, mindful Abercrombie was a pie-in-the-sky proposal after a stellar ANBL season that demands the Tall Black should be putting his feelers out offshore.
Abercrombie, he felt, was a "genuine seven-footer" who would be sought after in Europe and the United States.
It is understood Abercrombie is in Chicago.
With the best-laid plans for Johnson, of Napier, hitting a judder bar for now a "small-er" Hawks team have adopted a different style of speed and pressure game under Baldwin.
"All the indications were all the work we had done for Kareem meant it was going to happen [granted citizenship] but it came as a shock to everyone when it was a negative because we did heaps to get him right," he said of Johnson who is conspicuous in his absence on the court as a mere spectator at the Hawks' home games.
The achilles injury to forward Sam Walker, of Hastings, in the first four rounds didn't help their cause, either.
"Tab decided on his roster he would rather have a different style of player for his imports so he was going to have Kareem as his 'unrestricted' player," he said, after Serbia-born forward Darko Cohadarevic and American slasher Brian Greene made their debut.
"They [Cohadarevic and Greene] are taking a while to get used to our refereeing," Trass said of the imports who have fallen into foul trouble amid the Hawks' two-win-three-loss record to date.
He questioned the latitude and licence of "pushing, shoving and holding" in the NBL games, considering when players here went abroad they had to quickly adapt to a less physical constitution.
"Here, you get hands all over you as you go for a shot so you move sideways and nothing is called so, of course, they [the imports] will get annoyed."
However, the Hawks, in the past few seasons, have come up considerably short in the physicality stakes and with a paucity of biggies this year it may be another Groundhog Day.
Last year in the semifinals, the Pero Cameron-coached Wellington Saints softened up the minor premiership champions Hawks in what almost resembled a bar room brawl in the capital city under coach Paul Henare, who has since switched allegiances to the Southland Sharks.
The Hawks have made the play-offs for several seasons now but that second title is proving to be somewhat elusive.
"We'll make the playoffs with Tab's style," Trass said, alluding to the Hawks' building confidence in their 118-73 victory over Waitakere Rangers here last Saturday.
