The New Orleans Hornets announced Thursday afternoon they had extended a qualifying offer to restricted free agent shooting guard Eric Gordon.

Gordon turned down an offer of a four-year extension, reported to be in the neighborhood of $50 million, last January in order to test free agency.

The Hornets have the ability to match any offers Gordon receives on the open market, and likely will do so because of the cap space they’ve acquired by the departure of center Emeka Okafor and forward Trevor Ariza in a trade last week with the Washington Wizards.

Thursday’s offer by the Hornets to Gordon is a required procedural move. They cannot begin to negotiate an extension with him until July 1.

via Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune