After a chaotic week to open up bracket play, we’ve now officially hit the money rounds! This week is something I have jokingly called the Week of Doom! Only one team will survive the week, the rest will be left with questions and fear. Glory awaits the champion at the end of the Slam Open, but as of now, it’s anyone’s game. Let’s go through the 4 teams I’m keeping my eye on this week, we’ll start with some lower bracket teams first.

Warriors Gaming Squad – Alright, now we’re talking. All respect to Nay, good player, but Kenny Got Works is one of the best we got and I’m not surprised they looked better with him out there. Now credit, it was a 3-0 sweep over Kings Guard Gaming, but my optimism about this team being a potential playoff contender is starting to bubble  up again. CB13 has started the season very well, they just seemed to need a real game breaker at lockdown with PF being a bit on the back burner in 3v3 this season. They get the loser of Gen.G/Pacers, so we’ll get a good idea of how real this team is pretty soon.

Hornets Venom GT – This team is hard to put a finger on. Heck, as I’m thinking about what I’m going to say in this paragraph, I’m not even sure what my angle is. They have 3 good players on their team, they sometimes play incredible series, but they have had some really weird duds to start the season. Losing to a community team in round 1 after a 3-1 group stage was very strange, but then they also beat a very good Bucks Gaming team in an intense 5-game series. I’m lost on them, so they go in the keeping an eye on them category. 

Pacers Gaming – They only played one game last week, but I’m still in on this team being a possible dark horse to win the Slam. We talked a lot this offseason after the trade about how Cooks needed to stand up and be “The Guy” for them this season. So far, he’s living up to the title. 11.5 ppg, 2.4 apg, 56% from 3, he’s been excellent. If he can get this team deep in 3s, I think an MVP case is there for Cooks as we head into 5s. That mode will decide it, but being in the conversation at the  start is all you can ask for.

Pistons GT – My standards for this team are incredibly high, so that’s probably the reason for my uneasy feeling around Detroit currently. This team is good, don’t get me wrong, but I guess I just expected them to be…world beaters? A lineup of Ant, Conor, and Jomar is great to think about. It just hasn’t really moved heaven and earth yet. I think it has a lot to do with the weakness of the PF position so far in the game mode. It hasn’t allowed guys to really take over from that position and because of that, the skills and impact of Jomar has been lessened. Connor has been excellent at lockdown and Ant seems to be coming into his MVP form again, but we’ve yet to really see them get into gear. Maybe this week will pop them back into form.