D’Angelo Russell a Blossoming Superstar, says Klay Thompson

Time is money

Time is money for the Golden State Warriors next season. The outcome of the year can be determined by the time of which many different things take to come into fruition.

The young core of Alen Smailagic, Jordan Poole and Eric Paschall will be expected to develop quickly, learn on the job, and contribute to the rotation as quickly as possible, and Kevon Looney must embrace a more important role within the team moving forward.

The Warriors cannot afford for Steph to have a slow start, either. He must hit the ground running and return to the MVP years of 2014-16, and he will need Draymond Green to play more like he did in the Western Conference finals, rather than the bulk of the regular season.

Much of how things turn out in the regular season, and thus drastically affecting postseason circumstances, also rests on the ACL of Klay Thompson. If he can return before the all-star break and be as close to 100% as possible, then perhaps the Dubs can push on and make a lot of teams in the west nervous.

The most important factor, however, is Russell.

He will not have much time to settle in, as he will be a very important piece of the puzzle from opening tip. He must find a way to work within Kerr’s system, while also building a chemistry with Curry that smoothly defines who controls the offense at any given moment.

But the biggest time factor for Russell circles back to Klay’s remark. He may well blossom into a superstar. The question, however, is how quickly can he do so?