SANTA CRUZ — Change and the G League go hand-in-hand but this offseason the Santa Cruz Warriors have gone through a significant retooling.
Only three players that were signed with Santa Cruz last season return to the team and head coach Casey Hill, who led the franchise to a championship in 2015 and is now the leader of the Agua Caliente Clippers, is also gone, replaced by first-time head coach Aaron Miles in July.
Yet the Warriors are once again loaded with young talent and are expected to compete for the inaugural G League championship come playoff time.
On a two-way contract allowing him to bounce between Golden State and Santa Cruz, Quinn Cook is the top prospect on the squad, which is banking on its versatility and length. The 6-foot-2 guard is one of only three players that measure in under 6-foot-6. Guards Avry Holmes (6-2) and Alex Hamilton (6-4) will be in the backcourt with Cook, who is expected to see plenty of time with Santa Cruz as one of the Warriors’ leaders.
“I’m just trying to be the best teammate I can be up in Golden State and down here; take what I’m learning up there and implement it down here,” said Cook, who last year was a star for the Canton Charge and earned G League All Star Game M.V.P. honors. “Coach Miles and I have a great rapport together and I just want to be the coach on the floor and help him as much as possible.”
Miles, 34, has no head-coaching experience but learned the game from two of the top collegiate coaches to ever roam the sidelines, playing for Roy Williams and Bill Self at Kansas and leading the Jayhawks to a pair of NCAA Final Four appearances. The Portland, Ore. native also spent last season as an assistant to Joe Dooley at Florida Gulf Coast University and was the assistant director of student-athlete development at Kansas the year before.
His stint in Santa Cruz is his third with the Golden State organization. He was previously on the Warriors’ roster as a player early in his professional career, which took him all over the globe and also featured stops in the then D-League.
Kris Weems and Michael Lee will be his two assistant coaches.
“As a first-time head coach, leading up to it I was a little nervous and anxious but that’s how it was as a player, also,” Miles said. “I think the great thing for us is I got a great staff that helps with organization and they got a lot of expertise that helps me. I’m confident going in there having them on my side.”
The staff will be tasked with squeezing out the most of a squad that has only four players over the age of 25 but a handful with NBA experience.
Center Trevor Thompson, a 7-footer from Ohio State, is the only real big man on the team when Damian Jones, a 6-foot-10 big man who dominated the league last season, is not on assignment from Golden State.
The rest can play multiple positions.
Forwards Cleanthony Early and James Southerland have a jump on learning the system after spending time in Santa Cruz last season, helping the Warriors advance to the playoffs and finish with a 31-19 record. Both are 6-foot-8 and can play all over the floor much like Michael Gbinije (6-7), Antonius Cleveland (6-6), Georges Niang (6-6), Damion Lee (6-6) and Najeal Young (6-6).
“We have a lot of skilled guys — anyone can have 20 on any given night,” Southerland said. “Once we start playing together and build that chemistry everything will be good.”
Rookie Chris Boucher, a 6-foot-10 big man from Oregon, fills out the 12-man roster heading into opening night. Boucher is the Warriors’ second two-way player but is not expected to be in action for some time as he rehabs from a torn ACL he suffered during his final season with the Ducks.
Thompson said he and Jones would have to hold the fort until Boucher comes back to the floor healthy and ready to go.
“Our biggest focus is us and getting better,” Thompson said. “That’s the only thing you can really do in the G League. Obviously just get better and keep working and working.”
Miles and the Warriors begin their season Friday in Ontario against Hill and the Clippers before hosting the South Bay Lakers on Saturday in their home opener.
Editor’s note: This story has been corrected. In an earlier version, the story misstated Trevor Thompson’s surname.
