Jon Metler backed the Brooklyn Nets on the moneyline against the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday, Oct. 6, and he did it for one blunt reason: he thought the market had pushed Charlotte too far. The preseason pick came with the Hornets trading as a heavy favorite even though Kon Knueppel was out with an injury and Coby White was sidelined.
That is why the Nets vs Hornets matchup drew attention from bettors looking for an edge in a game that was never about a full-strength roster. Metler said he was shocked to see Charlotte priced that way, then made his case in simple numbers: Brooklyn was trading at 40%, and he believed the Nets should have been closer to 44% in the matchup. His point was not that Brooklyn was dominant. It was that the price did not match the team he thought was being offered.
Preseason games tend to move on details that would matter less once the real games begin. Rotations are shorter, rest decisions matter more, and late lineup news can swing a moneyline quickly. That is what made this one stand out. The Hornets were missing two primary offensive weapons, yet they were still being treated like the stronger side, even while they were trying to fold Grayson Allen and Naz Reid into their system.
That is the friction in the market. Charlotte’s number reflected respect for the home side’s broader shape, but Metler’s read focused on what was missing right now, not what might be true later. In preseason, that difference can be the whole bet. Odds were correct at the time of publishing and remained subject to change, which only sharpened the argument around whether the Hornets had been given too much credit.
The game itself was still to come, and the real test of the call would be whether Brooklyn could turn that price disagreement into a moneyline win. For bettors, the cleaner question was the one Metler already answered: if Charlotte was laying a bigger number while short-handed, was Brooklyn the side the market had left behind?
