Well it’s certainly been an interesting week between the NBA and college basketball. The week of the underdog is causing issues for some of the NBA elite, while totally shifting the balance of power in the NCAA. In this week’s edition of “Heat Check” I’ll attempt to figure out what is going on with the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Chicago Bulls. I also have a few thoughts on the wild week in the NCAA.

Before I jump into the play on the court, let me quickly give my two cents on the final NBA All-Star rosters. Just like any year there are going to be debatable selections to both teams. Portland point guard Damien Lillard was definitely a snub but with the depth at guard in the Western Conference, you need to be on the top of your game to earn coveted spot in the All-Star game.

Which brings me to the biggest snub from yesterday’s announcement of the final rosters. Paul Millsap making the team over Joel Embiid was a pretty terrible choice. Embiid is in the midst of a Rookie of the Year season, and is singlehandedly changing the fortune of the 76ers. A minutes restriction and rest management should not have cost him a spot to be an All-Star. There might not be a better big man playing right now than the young star from Philadelphia. Okay, before I delve into a full on rant, lets get into the heart of the action from this week.

What’s Wrong With Cleveland?

When I gave my midseason power rankings, I was careful to place the Spurs ahead of the Cavaliers. My main reasoning for that is that this is usually the time of the year where a LeBron-led Cavs squad goes cold for a little while. That was before San Antonio beat Cleveland in overtime, and before things in “The Land” started to get a little crazy.

After the loss to the Spurs, Cleveland was 5-5 since the start of 2017, but that isn’t a bad loss by any stretch of the imagination. Dropping a game on Monday against New Orleans, without Anthony Davis, is a pretty bad loss. Then a frustrated LeBron compounds it by telling the media that “we need another f***ing playmaker.”

Wednesday rolls around and reports surface that the Knicks offered Carmelo Anthony for Kevin Love, and that Cleveland rejected the offer. That night, Sacramento comes into Cleveland and upsets the defending champs in overtime. Yikes. In a postgame interview, LeBron commented on the rejected Carmelo trade saying that “we can’t play fantasy basketball.”

LeBron is right and wrong with his comments. Outside of the big three, there are nothing but specialists on this Cleveland roster, especially with the streaky J.R. Smith out injured. So yeah, the Cavs need to figure out a way to get a playmaker on this roster. However, losing Kevin Love wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, especially if it can gain Cleveland a playmaker and some more resources.

Obviously, LeBron knows that they can make the Finals with the current roster. This is about making the road there easier on him. James currently is averaging 37.6 on the season, but over 40 minutes during this stretch. Then you have the prospects of playing Golden State in the Finals which right now, I’m not sure how Cleveland matches up.

This is a rough patch for Cleveland but it could be indicative of a larger problem that this roster might not be capable of winning back-to-back NBA championships. Now you add to this mix the issue between LeBron and Cavs owner Dan Gilbert over the cost of the total roster salary, and you can see why there are certainly some serious problems right now for the defending champs.

Dysfunction in Chicago

When the Bulls handed the reigns of the team over to Jimmy Butler, we all could agree that was the logical move towards the future. Then they signed future Hall of Famer Dwayne Wade and the beleaguered Rajon Rondo during free agency. Some thought that this was an intriguing mix of talented players who could run an aggressive, slashing offense led by Butler. Others saw possibly the worst shooting backcourt in the league, and a combination that is destined to fail in a big way before the end of the season.

Well any of you in the latter portion of that crowd got to pat yourself on the back this week when the tension in the Chicago locker room made its way into the media. Butler and Wade both publically called out the younger teammates on the roster, blaming their lack of effort every night as a reason for the downward spiral. Then Rondo fired back by dropping a hell of a post on Instagram, calling out Butler and Wade for airing the team’s dirty laundry and not handling this like professionals.

None of this is going to fix the issue that this roster just doesn’t work as constructed. They can make nice in the locker room but there just isn’t enough on-court chemistry to make this work. Don’t be surprised if both Rondo and Wade are traded by the end of February.

A Taste of March Madness in Late January

It has been a bad week to be a top ranked team in the country in college basketball. We haven’t even reached Saturday yet and five of the top ten teams in the country already took a loss this week. That includes three of the top four (Villanova, Kansas, and Kentucky). That means tomorrow’s Kansas-Kentucky showdown will likely mean who sticks around in the top five, with a bad loss knocking the loser out of the top ten completely.

All of this turmoil in the top ten means that Gonzaga will likely take over as the top team in the country following this wild week. This week is also setting the tone for the rest of the season. There isn’t a dominant team this season and anyone can lose on a given night. Settle in folks, the rest of the regular season is going to be great but I think we are in for one of the craziest NCAA tournaments in recent memory.

That’s it for me this week. I’ll be back on Monday to recap the weekend. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.