It could easily be said that your fanbase (the ones proposing the trades) could easily view Gordon as less than what your front office does (the ones actually doing the trading) which is what is enticing us to ask for a lot. Considering that we've offered him something near the max and have been persistent that we are willing to pay him the max through matching, it's a little tough to say Demps doesn't believe Gordon is worth the max.
Regardless, this isn't quite the CP3 situation. CP3 was going to be gone in a year and there was nothing we could do about it. We didn't really have much leverage because there were only certain places he would be content with going to, so a lot of options were crossed out.
Gordon on the other hand will be forced to play at least 3 years which gives time to fix the situation (not the big point, but I do believe Gordon can be swayed), but also gives time to find better assets than Kendall Marshall (who with Rivers is an awful pairing defensively) and maybe a later lottery pick.
Gordon's too big of an asset to just let walk away for some mediocre asset that might not even be better than what we have currently, and agreeing to a lowball Phoenix offer would clearly be shortsighted and giving into the demands of a RFA, which would be stupid. The Hornets hold all the leverage here whether you want to believe it or not.