Team to see a lot of Lakers in preseason
The Warriors will get a heavy dose of the newlook Lakers in the preseason, according to the fivegame schedule released Thursday.
Golden State hosts the Lakers at Chase Center on Oct. 5, marking the first NBA game in San Francisco since Jan. 29, 1971, when the Warriors beat the Buffalo Braves 106100 at the Civic Auditorium.
After hosting the Timberwolves on Oct. 10, the Warriors head to Los Angeles for games against the Lakers on Oct. 14 and 16, before returning home to face — you guessed it — the Lakers, on Oct. 18.
The Lakers made big changes to their roster in the offseason that vaulted them into the realm of contention, adding AllStar forward/center An
thony Davis and twoway guard Danny Green alongside LeBron James. They also signed former Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins and guard Quinn Cook.
Will all the new pieces fit together? Golden State head coach Steve Kerr is charged with answering the same question.
With eight new players, and eight with four or fewer seasons of NBA experience, Kerr will have his work cut out as he crafts rotations and schemes to fit his personnel and compensate for the departure of Kevin
Durant and injury absence of Klay Thompson.
The Lakers’ matchup will be a good early defensive test for Willie CauleyStein, the 7foot former Sacramento center signed this offseason who could start for Golden State. The Warriors also will look for someone to make stops on the perimeter while Thompson recovers from left ACL surgery. D’Angelo Russell, the AllStar point guard acquired by the Warriors in a signandtrade with Brooklyn for Durant, was drafted second overall by the Lakers in 2015 and spent his first two seasons with Los Angeles.
The Warriors will play the entirety of their preseason schedule in California for the first time since 2011.
Staff changes: The Warriors are calling up two members of their G League leadership to bolster their NBA staff, according to league sources. Aaron Miles, the Santa Cruz Warriors’ head coach the past two years, will be a playerdevelopment coach for Golden State. Kent La
cob, who last served as Santa Cruz’s general manager, also will move to a role with Golden State, though specifics of the position are unclear.
Miles’ promotion marks a return to the only NBA team that gave him a shot as a player after he went undrafted out of Kansas. He appeared in 19 games for the Warriors as a rookie in 200506 but was released before his contract was guaranteed.
Miles found success as a point guard in the EuroLeague and joined the Warriors for training camp in 201011, but fell shy of a roster spot.
The 36yearold native of Portland, Ore., served as head coach of the Warriors’ summerleague team this year. It gave him time with secondyear guard Jacob Evans
III and rookies Jordan Poole, Eric Paschall and Alen Smailagic, the 18yearold big man who played for Santa Cruz last season.
Some within the Golden State organization view Miles as a future NBA head coach, and this counts as a step in that direction.
“I just want to become great wherever I’m at,” Miles told The Chronicle in June. “If I have that opportunity and I’m blessed to become an NBA head coach, I would love that. If it doesn’t come in the NBA, whatever. As long as my family’s good.”
Lacob, son of Golden State majority owner Joe
Lacob, earned a reputation as a fastrising executive in the organization with an increasing voice in decisionmaking. He is the younger brother of Warriors assistant GM Kirk Lacob. Kris Weems will be promoted from Santa Cruz assistant to head coach, and former assistant GM Ryan Atkinson will replace Lacob as Santa Cruz’s GM. Jon Schultz is a San Francisco Chronicle assistant sports editor. Connor Letourneau is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jschultz@sfchronicle.com, cletourneau@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JonSchultzSF, @Con_Chron