Point guard Aaron Miles had just been waived by Golden State midseason when he signed with a little-known team in Fort Worth, Texas, in hopes of resuscitating his career.

The Fort Worth Flyers’ league billed itself as a farm system for the NBA, but that seemed like hyperbole to Miles. It was January 2006, and with fewer than a dozen franchises playing in front of sparse crowds in basketball outposts, the NBA Development League looked poised for an imminent demise.

“Back then, I never could’ve foreseen it becoming what it is today,” said Miles, now head coach of the Santa Cruz Warriors, Golden State’s G League (formerly NBA D-League) affiliate. “The G League has grown in a lot of different areas, and there’s a bright future ahead for it.”

The latest evidence came less than two weeks ago, when Golden State center DeMarcus Cousins — a four-time NBA All-Star — volunteered to practice with Santa Cruz as he recovers from a torn left Achilles tendon. Within seven days, Cousins slogged through three workouts in Santa Cruz, getting in 5-on-5 scrimmages that wouldn’t have been available with Golden State.

That Cousins even viewed the G League as a viable option as he ramped up his rehab spoke to the synergy Golden State has built with Santa Cruz. Once considered a place for has-beens and wannabes, Santa Cruz is increasingly being seen as an opportunity for much-needed playing time.

Last February, when minutes with the big club were fleeting, reserve guard Patrick McCaw asked Golden State head coach Steve Kerr to send him to the G League for two games. Five young players whom Golden State hopes will be key building blocks — Jordan Bell, Quinn Cook, Jacob Evans, Damian Jones and Kevon Looney — have logged time in Santa Cruz.

The introduction last season of two-way contracts, which allow two affiliated G League players to spend up to 45 days with the NBA team, has only strengthened the bond between Golden State and Santa Cruz.

Damion Lee harbors designs on following the path that Cook paved, parlaying a two-way contract into a guaranteed deal with Golden State. When not leading Santa Cruz, he has offered Golden State another shooter off the bench, averaging 4.9 points on 45.5 percent shooting — 43.3 percent from three-point range — in 15 NBA games.

Two-way player development coach Luke Loucks has helped ease the split existence of Lee and Golden State’s other two-way-contract player, forward Marcus Derrickson.

A former Florida State point guard who spent a year in Golden State’s video room, Loucks shows Lee and Derrickson video of the NBA practices they miss so they don’t fall behind. In recent months, when Kerr has needed an update on how Evans, Lee or Derrickson are developing in the G League, he has asked Loucks.

It helps that Miles runs nearly the same movement-heavy offense in Santa Cruz that Kerr employs with Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.

Miles’ staff works with Golden State’s Summer League teams. Before and after Santa Cruz’s almost five-month season, Miles accompanies Golden State for shoot-arounds, practices and games.

Though Golden State is making sure Miles understands Kerr’s system, it is also trying to groom a promising young coach for bigger opportunities. The organization has taken that same developmental approach in bringing along front-office executives. Golden State director of basketball operations Jonnie West and assistant general manager Kirk Lacob, among others, worked in Santa Cruz before being promoted to the NBA club.

“I think we understand that we’re all in this big picture together, and we’re all working to accomplish the same goals,” Santa Cruz general manager Kent Lacob said. “More so than it ever has, it feels like one big family, one big organization.”

Golden State became the fourth NBA franchise to own its minor-league affiliate when it bought the Dakota Wizards in June 2011. Fifteen months later, it moved the club from Bismarck, N.D., to Santa Cruz — just 65 miles south of Oracle Arena — and rebranded the squad the Santa Cruz Warriors.

Today, Santa Cruz boasts 22 current or former players who have been called up to the NBA. Its home sellout streak at its 2,505-seat arena stands at 65 games and counting.

Only three NBA teams — Portland, Denver and New Orleans — don’t own a G League affiliate, with the Pelicans planning to start one in Birmingham, Ala., in 2022. There have already been seven G League players called up to the NBA this season. Beginning next year, select players will be able to earn $125,000 in the G League for a season before entering the NBA draft.

The question now is whether Golden State will start to treat Santa Cruz even more like Major League Baseball utilizes its minor-league system, with NBA players heading down to the G League for rehab stints that include games.

Before Cousins practiced with Santa Cruz this month, such well-known NBA players as Tony Parker, Blake Griffin, Rajon Rondo and Amar’e Stoudemire worked out with minor-league affiliates as they rehabbed injuries. No All-Star-caliber player in his prime, however, has played in a G League game.

Though Golden State has yet to decide whether Cousins will suit up for a game with Santa Cruz, Cousins said he’s open to the idea. And that alone is major progress for a league that seemed destined to fail little more than a decade ago.

“I think that would be the next step for the G League, and it makes perfect sense,” Kerr said. “If you need to get your rhythm back coming off of an injury, why not do it in that setting where you can afford to make some mistakes?”

Connor Letourneau is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cletourneau@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @Con_Chron