And, according to ESPN NBA insider Marc Stein, there's a good chance they'll use all of their allotted time.

Hornets now have 3 days to match EGordon offer sheet. They definitely will but early indications I get is they'll make PHX wait full 3 days

— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) July 11, 2012

That would give the Hornets until sometime Saturday, though since they've maintained all along that they plan to match, it's interesting that they would wait as long as possible to make it official.

After all, Gordon has been consistent in talking about his desire to leave New Orleans, so making him wait as long as possible to know where he'll be playing next season is not likely to go over well with him. The Suns probably won't appreciate the move, either.

Maybe the Hornets will wait all 72 hours out of spite, to Gordon for wanting to leave and the Suns for trying to lure him away. Or, perhaps, they are really unsure of what they'll be doing with the player, and need a little extra time to decide.

One other possibility, which has been brought up by our commenters (good looking out), is that the Hornets may be waiting to see if they can add some players before officially committing to pay Gordon the max contract.

No matter what the reason -- or what they do -- we'll know by Saturday at the latest.