Kurtenbach

able jump shot, his minutes were always going to prove more valuable without Curry in the lineup — but add in his strong defense and ability to anchor the second unit (even more crucial now with the Warriors’ strange staggering due to injury) and you have extreme value.

West has proven himself, time and time again this season, to be the Warriors’ best true center. He did again Monday.

Bell isn’t far behind

First, let’s stop with the Draymond Green-Jordan Bell comparisons. Yes, both players are super-switchable small-ball bigs who play with energy, but Green does so much more for the Warriors on offense than the rookie does.

Until Bell starts running the point, the comparisons

to Draymond are one-sided only.

That said, given Bell’s incredible progression as a rookie, would you be shocked if he started running point come March or April?

Bell turned in another strong performance Monday — he’s on a run — without Green in the lineup, scoring 11 and pulling down six rebounds to go with another excellent defensive game.

Every minute Bell plays, he seems to improve, and with Green and Zaza Pachulia out of the lineup with shoulder injuries, Bell keeps getting (and justifying) more playing time and making more of an impact.

Something that has really stood out in recent games: Bell is a great passer. He truly has a preternatural court awareness for a rookie, and every game, he shows just a bit more of it. If he shows he can dribble in the coming weeks, it’s game over.

(He already is showing he can knock down a jumper …)

West’s tremendous contributions have been found money for the Warriors — no one saw this kind of impact coming. It’s only December, but Bell has already paid back the $3.5 million the Warriors paid the Chicago Bulls for the right to draft him — we’re now entering the found money portion of Bell’s season and it could be extremely lucrative.

Thompson: playmaker

Another one of the Warriors’ big challenges with Curry out would be if Klay Thompson could produce without Curry’s gravity.

After all, without Curry, there wouldn’t be as much space on the floor, and Thompson’s catch-andshoot game — the one that allows him to score 30 points without having to dribble — could disappear.

While Klay is still getting up shots in tight windows off the catch, he is showing another dimension to his game with Curry (and Green) out: his dribbling ability.

Thompson has claimed all year that he feels like he’s taking his playmaking ability to the next level. The box score might not show it, but you need only to look at how frequently (and successfully) Thompson is putting the ball on the floor over the past three games.

Thompson taking on some of the responsibilities of facilitating the offense takes pressure of Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, and particularly Durant, who have been the main point men with Curry out of the lineup. It makes the Warriors offense that much more potent.