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.

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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.

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.

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)