The Santa Cruz Warriors are entering the 2017-18 NBA G League season with a new identity as first-year coach Aaron Miles takes over the team.

And usually a new coach brings with him a new staff and new faces in the locker room. But in the ever-evolving G League, that’s nothing new.

“You never get the same roster back from the previous season,” Miles, a former assistant at Kansas and, more recently, Florida Gulf Coast, said after his introductory press conference in August. “From a roster standpoint, we don’t know who we’re going to get exactly, but you just gotta try to make the most and get the most up out of them, regardless who it is that comes.

“And I’m looking forward to it.”

The Warriors’ new roster includes four returning players, four affiliate players, two 2017 NBA G League Draft selections and a pair of players acquired with the new two-way player rule who will also see time on the floor for the team’s parent club, Golden State.

With so many moving pieces, Miles may count on Cleanthony Early, Alex Hamilton, Damion Lee and James Southerland to give the Warriors some stability. All four are coming back to a Santa Cruz team that finished 31-19 last season for second place in the Western Conference’s Pacific Division.

Southerland played in 35 games and made 28 starts last season where he averaged 13.7 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game. He said the goal isn’t necessarily to produce a better team record, but to produce better players.

“Hopefully, getting a call up, that’s the reason why we’re here,” Southerland said. “We have a bunch of good guys, great talent, a lot of skilled guys.”

Southerland said going into the new season he wants to be consistent and shoot a higher percentage. He shot 39 percent from 3-point range last year and, though it might be good for some players, he said he wants to get better.

“For me, that’s not that good. It’s actually my lowest,” Southerland said. “So, I really want to go out there and perform a lot better with that. Take less contested shots, really.”

Southerland had a chance to play basketball in Puerto Rico during the summer. He played in a couple of tournaments including one that featured his former teammates from Syracuse.

Center Damian Jones is currently on assignment from Golden State after joining the Warriors on Oct. 25. He was the 30th overall pick in last year’s NBA draft but spent plenty of time in Santa Cruz on assignment last season as mode of gaining experience. He played 10 games with Golden State last year, when he averaged 1.9 points and 2.3 rebounds in 8.5 minutes per game.

“Just coming in to get better. My main goal is to keep on improving, stay in game shape,” Jones said.

Jones said the Santa Cruz Warriors are looking pretty solid and the players were able get in a lot of practice time during last week’s training camp session.

“I think we can win a championship with this team, we have a good group. A lot of guys from last year, too. We have all the good pieces to win. We just got to compete hard every day and just show them what we got,” Jones said.

Warriors first-year player Trevor Thompson was brought in as one of the four players under the affiliate player rule. The rule allows G League teams to retain up to four of the players waived by its NBA affiliate, in this case Golden State. Affiliate players remain free agents available for any of the 30 NBA teams to sign.

Thompson, who played at Ohio State last season, said the biggest thing for him is taking each day to learn and improve his game. He said the transition has been good for him despite having to adjust to the pace of the game.

“Just from playing the (NBA) Summer League, that really kind of helped me get adjusted to the different rules and the speed of the game and stuff like that, but it’s been good,” Thompson said.

Thompson played in the NBA Summer League for the Boston Celtics and said just being around coach Brad Stevens was a great experience.

“I think it definitely helped a lot,” Thompson said.

Georges Niang, Michael Gbinije and Anotonius Cleveland join Thompson as the designated players from Golden State. Quinn Cook and Chris Boucher signed two-way contracts with Santa Cruz.

The Warriors also drafted forward Najeal Young and Avry Holmes in this year’s G League Draft. Southerland said both Young and Holmes bring a lot of energy to the team and can play great defensively.

“Defense come before anything and they do a good job of doing that,” Southerland said.

The Warriors tip off the season against the Agua Caliente Clippers, the affiliate team for the Los Angeles Clippers, on Friday at 7 p.m. They’ll be going up against a familiar face, as former coach Casey Hill is now in charge of the G League Clippers.

Southerland said it’ll feel different seeing Hill coaching from the opposing bench, especially after a season where the Warriors fought to get into the playoffs only to be eliminated in the first round by Oklahoma City.

“I feel like it’s always great to see him again because he’s a real great guy. He cares a lot about his guys,” Southerland said. “It’s going to be fun, and I know he’s going to do well out there just like he did over here.”