Eric Gordon To Sign Max Offer Sheet With Suns
New Orleans Hornets free agent guard Eric Gordon has agreed to sign a maximum 4-year, $58 million offer sheet with the Phoenix Suns, according to ESPN.com’s Chris Broussard. Gordon, who averaged 20.6 ppg in only 9 games for the Hornets last year, is one of the more highly coveted free agents in this class because of his elite scoring ability, but because he’s a restricted free agent New Orleans can and probably will match the offer.
Gordon met with Phoenix on Tuesday and had a fruitful enough meeting to walk out with an offer. Since the team is most likely losing Steve Nash this summer, they are looking for a new star to build around, and Gordon certainly would qualify as that.
“After visiting the Suns, the impression the organization made on me was incredible,” Gordon told Broussard. “Mr. (Robert) Sarver, Lon Babby, Lance Blanks, the Front Office Staff and Coach (Alvin) Gentry run a first-class organization, and I strongly feel they are the right franchise for me. Phoenix is just where my heart is now.”
Wherever Gordon’s heart may be, hit talents may be in New Orleans for the next four years if the Hornets match this offer as expected. They’ve got plenty of cap space, a couple of promising rookies in Austin Rivers and Anthony Davis, and a brand new owner looking to help turn the franchise around after a pretty dismal year one of the post-Chris-Paul Era. It would truly come as a shock if they simply let the best asset from the Paul trade walk away for nothing.
With Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade gracefully aging into the twilights of their careers, Gordon is on an upward swing that could end up with him being one of the top two or three shooting guards in the league. The only question will be whether or not he can stay healthy; Gordon has missed a total of 103 games over the course of the last three seasons.
Despite all that, he’s still worth the money, which is probably why Phoenix offered it to him. New Orleans probably had a pretty good idea Gordon would get a max offer and will have been planning for that for months now.
Gordon will sign the offer sheet on July 11th, at which point the Hornets will have three days to match it.
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