Santa Cruz Warriors trade James Southerland, Alex Hamilton
Ahead of their game against the Salt Lake City Stars on Tuesday, the Santa Cruz Warriors made a couple of unexpected trades.
Following a 131-127 overtime win against the South Bay Lakers on Sunday at Kaiser Permanente Arena, the Santa Cruz Warriors — G League affiliate of the reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors — will kick off a three-game road trip on Tuesday, starting with the Salt Lake City Stars.
As it stands right now, Surf City is positioned in seventh place in the Western Conference with a regular season win/loss record of 19-17 (.528). With 13 games left in the season, it’s highly unlikely the Sea Dubs make it back into postseason contention, and it would appear the team has switched their focus to retooling for the future.
Starting on Monday, the Warriors completed a three-team trade with the Windy City Bulls and the Reno Bighorns, sending Alex Hamilton and a 2018 third-round pick to Windy City in order to acquire the returning rights to Thomas Walkup (Bulls), the returning rights to Lamar Patterson (Bighorns) and the Erie Bayhawks’ 2018 first-round pick.
Then on Tuesday, the Warriors exchanged James Southerland and the returning rights to Scott Wood for South Bay’s 2018 first-round pick. Only time will tell whether these trades benefit Santa Cruz’s long-term vision, but before we get too far into that, let’s touch base on tonight’s game.
Game Details
Santa Cruz Warriors at Salt Lake City Stars
Tip-Off: Tuesday, February 13, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. PST
Location: Lifetime Activities Center-Bruin Arena, Taylorsville, UT
TV: Facebook Live
Radio: N/A
Projected Starting Lineups
Salt Lake City Stars
PG: Isaiah Cousins
SG: Naz Mitrou-Long
SF: Erik McCree
PF: Georges Niang
C: Tony Bradley
Head Coach: Martin Schiller
Santa Cruz Warriors
PG: Quinn Cook
SG: Michael Gbinije
SF: Winston Shepard
PF: Terrence Jones
C: Damian Jones
Head Coach: Aaron Miles
Injury Report
SCW: None.
SLC: Diamond Stone (illness) is listed inactive.
Next: Quinn Cook scores 41pts in OT win vs. Lakers
Key(s) to the Game
Last time these two teams played, Damian Jones dropped 27 points on 13-of-15 shooting, and I’d love to see that happen this time around, as well. Not counting the 37-20 third quarter, the Warriors were on pretty even ground with SLC for most of the game, so I’m not too concerned with Santa Cruz’s gameplan.
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But that’s not what we’re here to discuss.
The Sea Dubs traded away two of their veterans for a couple draft picks, which means the team likely wants to focus on developing their younger players as the regular season comes to a close and the playoffs get further and further out of reach.
Considering both Walkup and Patterson are overseas and will not able to help the team this season, Santa Cruz clearly has no intention to give their all in an effort to make the postseason, instead setting their sights on next season.
In terms of the current roster, the Southerland trade frees up a great deal of time for guys like Warriors two-way contract player, Chris Boucher, while the Hamilton trade will likely benefit a guy like Damion Lee.
Both Lee and Boucher have been excellent coming off the bench for the Sea Dubs and deserve much more time in rotation.
(All game information provided via Santa Cruz Warriors PR)