Say the time is no better than usual (7)
I believe the answer is:
average
'usual' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'say the time' is the wordplay.
'say' becomes 'aver' (synonyms).
'the time' becomes 'age' (age is a kind of time).
'aver'+'age'='AVERAGE'
'is no better than' acts as a link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for average that I've seen before include "It may be mean" , "Moderate" , "Medial" , "Usual - mediocre - mean" , "Mean - medium" .)