Portland Trail Blazers GM Rich Cho says Friday morning that the Blazers do not plan to extend a second 10-day contract offer to big man Chris Johnson. Johnson will head back to the Dakota Wizards of the D-League.
The decision comes as a bit of a surprise, as the Blazers weresaid to be leaningtowards continuing his trial run, which ended yesterday when his first 10-day contract expired.
Cho said he expects starting center Marcus Camby back within the next few weeks. Camby's return will eliminate the roster slot created by an injury exception the Blazers received for his absence. Without that slot, the roster is at the maximum 15 players and the team therefore cannot retain Johnson. Conversely, extending a second 10-day contract to Johnson would have required Camby's return to be delayed a full two weeks.
Johnson averaged 2 points and 2 rebounds in his two appearances with the Blazers.
-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com |Twitter