Would you sign Gordon if he was an UFA?
With his injury history, would you got out and sign Eric Gordon if he was an UFA to a max contract (even though it was really $10M more than you thought he was worth) if you knew he wouldn't be happy here?
Sounds like a really stupid question doesn't it? (and obviously he wouldn't sign here if he didn't want to be here, but of course this is hypothetical)
Or would you do it simply because, even though you thought you were overpaying him, that he would be a valuable trade asset later, even though he is injured every season?
If you reasonably answered that you wouldn't go out and sign him if he was unrestricted, what's REALLY the difference here?