The impact of the Atlanta Hawks assigning Johnson and Cooper to the Skyhawks

The Atlanta Hawks have assigned Jalen Johnson to the College Park Skyhawks as well as transferring two-way player Sharife Cooper back to the G League team. This makes sense given that the Hawks are at full strength, there will be no playing time for either of these players outside of junk time minutes.

While Johnson has shown some real consistency with the Skyhawks, including hitting the game-winner against the Long Island Nets. However, the Hawks have a problem when it comes to Cooper and it will be difficult to see where he is going to fit with the Skyhawks.

With Cat Barber leading the team they have gone from a winless start to being just outside the playoffs with a 5-5 record. Normally with a two-way player coming back the G League team would automatically put him into the starting unit but this may not be the case.

The Atlanta Hawks may be looking at other players for the two-way spot.

Johnson is going to go straight back into the starting lineup, he has been playing well enough and is fitting into the rotations well. However, thanks to the tremendous game played by Langston Galloway against the Delaware Blue Coats, Cooper may struggle to get over this hurdle and get much playing time.

When he does make it to the court against the Motor City Cruise next game Cooper is going to have to play both guard roles if he wants to garner much court time. The Cruise convincingly beat the Skyhawks in their last two outings and for the Skyhawks to break into the playoff seeding they need to take one back against the highly-placed Cruise.

However, if Cooper cannot perform these roles up to the standard required, then there is a possibility that the Hawks may go looking for a new two-way player. He is stuck in limbo between the two teams and also looking for what his role is. His work ethic is so good that Cooper will find his place but it needs to be sooner rather than later.