Golden State Warriors Inks Deal with Former Magic Guard Ben Gordon; Andre Iguodala Went To Germany To Treat Knee Injury

Sep 30, 2015 11:56 AM EDT

The Golden State Warriors continue to add new faces to their bench as they head to training camp. After speculations about a possible Ben Gordon acquisition surfaced last week, the team finally confirmed that it has signed the free agent small forward/shooting guard to a training camp deal.

Gordon previously played for the Orlando Magic where he averaged 6.2 points, 1.1 rebounds in 14.1 minutes spread over 56 games. For entire his career, the 6-foot-3 guard has delivered 14.9 points in 27.4 minutes in a total of 744 games. Orlando, however, declined to pick up the veteran for its 2015-16 campaign after signing him to a two-year, $9 million deal prior to the 2014-15 season.

Because of the nature of the deal, Gordon is not guaranteed a spot on the Warriors' final 15-man roster. Nevertheless, he could fill a vacant position if he performs impressively during training. He will compete with the likes of Jarell Eddie, Ian Clark, Chris Babb, and Juwon Slaten for a bench spot, which is apparently the only real vacant position on a lineup that returned its top nine member in terms of minutes from last season.

Meanwhile, another Golden State Warriors small forward Andre Iguodala revealed during the team's media day on Monday that he received knee injections in Germany during the offseason. The treatment is meant to ease joint soreness, but the player did not elaborate on whether it is the same orthokine injections that Lakers guard Kobe Bryant receives yearly in the same country.

Iguodala is just fresh off the said trip but he is already seeing the positive effects of the procedure. "My knees feel really good. I've been dunking a lot lately, which I normally don't do in the offseason," he shared.

Even if the 31-year-old forward has won the NBA Finals MVP award for 2015, it looks like he is still expected to come off bench again for the next season. Coach Steve Kerr said during training camp on Tuesday that the regular-season roster strategy that had Iguodala coming off the bench would "definitely" be the same one that Golden State will use to start the upcoming season.

The coach clarified that "Nothing is set in stone, but we won 67 games, so I don't think we'll change the starting lineup to start the season. Why would we? Why would we change what we did last year when we had as much success as we did?" Kerr also mentioned that there could be circumstances, such as in the NBA Finals, when Iguodala would enter the lineup.