We now enter my favorite time of the year: February. February is my Christmas. No more baseball. No more football. Just basketball. The way life should be.

As a Spurs fan, it means:

• Cross your fingers and hope that once again Tim Duncan slaps Father Time in the teeth and gets voted in as an All-Star. Check.

• Listen to the boo-hooing and crying about the All-Star snubs, about who got in but shouldn’t have, yada yada yada. Look, I don’t think Durant should have gotten in, but I do think Kobe should have. How does that make sense? Because fans vote for the starters and coaches vote for reserves. Fans are emotional. No way is Kobe making an All-Star team if he isn’t voted in by fans, and I think the fans know it. Also, I think Durant got in because he is the reigning MVP. Consider it a courtesy vote by the coaches.

You want to complain? Complain about DeMarcus Cousins getting selected to replace Kobe instead of Damian Lillard. That is almost criminal. Don’t agree with me? Go watch the Vine clip of Boogie Cousins playing defense, if that’s what you want to call it. Hands on his knees and on the high-side of his defender, as if that makes any sense. Steph Curry tosses a lob from out of bounds and Boogies’ man catches and dunks it. Boogie never even moves. His hands are still on his knees. THAT is the exact reason why coaches didn’t vote that guy in. Mistake one for Commissioner Adam Silver. Give me Damian Lillard over eMarcus Cousins any day of the week and twice on Sundays (I know I spelled his name like that, but he doesn’t have any “D”).

• Find a way to suffer through the week or so of NBA basketball from the time the All-Stars are announced to the actual All-Star Weekend. This might be the worst basketball week of the year. Players are basically checked out, just trying to make it to the weekend off.

• Enjoy the BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge, the Taco Bell Skills Challenge, the Foot Locker Three-Point Contest (repeat Marco!) and Degree Shooting Stars event more than the Sprite Slam Dunk contest.

The Slam Dunk contest may be the saddest part of the entire All-Star weekend. The NBA took something created by the ABA that was perfect and just flat-out ruined it. It’s like they said, “Hey, you know how the dunk contest is perfect? Well, we need to go ahead and destroy that. Less people, fewer dunks, but more attempts at dunks. And if you miss a dunk 318 times, you can still win! Yeah, that will work.” Thanks again, David Stern. Oh, but someone jumped over a car in 2011! Pffff.. he jumped over the hood of a Kia and had a choir. Can you even remember last year’s dunk contest? Me neither.

• Enjoy possibly one of the best weeks of basketball which isn’t during the playoffs, when players have been rejuvenated and rested. Personally, I enjoy watching three types of player attitudes after the All-Star break:

  1. The “Please trade for me. Look how good I am” attitude.
  2. The “Please don’t trade me. Look how good I am” attitude.
  3. The “My old team traded me. Look how good I am” attitude.

• Eagerly await the trade deadline: February 19. As a Spurs fan, I have learned over the years that rarely do the Spurs make a big splash. The moves around the league interest me more, not because I think that teams get better by the Trade Deadline, but because I think they get worse. Trade Deadline moves often seem desperate and, unless you just really have that right guy with the right team in the right situation, often hurt a postseason push more than help it. Just my opinion. I was wrong once before.

• Anxiously await my favorite day of the year: March 1. This is the day teams can sign a player who can be eligible for the playoffs. I like this day better because teams usually sign more mature, veteran players and they sign them for a good price. I still never get my hopes up, but it’s always fun to observe from a distance.

• And of course, I skipped one, the most important one maybe: the ever important Rodeo Road Trip. It’s the Spurs most trying test of basketball the entire year. Nine straight road games and, this year, mostly against West Coast teams.

This year’s Rodeo Road Trip concerns me more than it has in other years. In the two games played last week against the Bucks and the Clippers, the Spurs really only played three quarters of good basketball. As Jeff pointed out, the Clippers just kicked the Spurs’ butt. That might have been one of the worst games the Spurs have played all year. It was bad from both a talent level and from an effort level. It reminds me of the “checked out before the All Star break” attitude I just talked about.

Not that the Milwaukee game was that much better, but you can get away with that kind of effort and execution against a Milwaukee team. The effort input comes easier because the talent output flows better. But against the Clippers, that isn’t the case and before you know it, you look up and you’re down by a “dub” early. As a fan, I can handle the month of December. But games like those drive me nuts.

I was at a birthday party on Saturday night and had plans to watch the game on my DVR later than night. It was a mystery dinner for my sister-in-law. Kinda fun. Kinda cheesy. Dan texted to inform me that the mystery dinner was probably more entertaining than the Spurs game. I watched later that night and he was right. (Side note: I actually really enjoyed the mystery dinner. I’m almost certain I encountered the doppelgangers of Erik Estrada and Liam Neeson. No doppelgangers reported at the Spurs game.)

The point is, this team still isn’t right. While this might not turn out to be the best Rodeo Road trip in recent years, it may prove to be the most important. Tony is hit-and-miss on any given night and we still don’t get much consistency from him.

Something’s just not right this year and only Tony knows what it is.

Our bigs at time look like Eastern Conference All-Stars and at other times like they wouldn’t make a D-League All-Star team.

Manu looks young, then he looks old. Then he looks like old. And then he looks old. Then he looks old. And then he looks old. Then young-old.

I’m pretty convinced the only team that can beat the Spurs now is the Spurs. But this road trip is going to have an effort output that is equal to the talent input. The Spurs will have to ask even more of their 38-year-old, 15-time All-Star, and more out of their 23-year-old future All-Star. Duncan and Kawhi have been the team’s saving grace this season and as we enter into the latter half, their consistency will be even more important while we all wait to see who else is going to join them.

Sitting at the number seven spot in the rankings, there isn’t much room for error. The Spurs are two full games behind Dallas, but three full games ahead of Phoenix. There is a lot of basketball left to play and still time to move up a couple spots, especially since no team in the West looks life-threatening (is that not the common phrase of every team not named Golden State right now?).

But before the Rodeo Road Trip, it would behoove the Spurs to remember that they have a game against Orlando and against Miami. Both are should wins.

Perhaps they should focus on that before they enjoy their weekend off.