Draymond Green defends Russell Westbrook and the Lakers: ‘You haven’t really had the opportunity to see that team healthy’

Russell Westbrook and the Los Angeles Lakers have not enjoyed a very successful 2021-22 NBA season thus far.

The Lakers have dealt with multiple injuries to key players while also dealing with chemistry issues on the court. The primary issue from a chemistry standpoint has been Westbrook’s inability to have a consistently positive impact on the court.

Still, Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green is not willing to write the Lakers off just yet. He issued an impassioned reminder about the Lakers on his podcast.

“The reality is I’m not sure Russell Westbrook gets traded,” he said in response to recent trade rumors. “If I’m guessing just as an NBA fan, I don’t really foresee it happening nor do I think it really should happen. You haven’t really had the opportunity to see that team healthy and how they could grow together healthy. And I also don’t like how Russell Westbrook gets all of the blame for everything going wrong.”

Green is completely right about the team not really even knowing what it is this late into the season due to injuries. The Lakers have had to go without key contributors for the vast majority of the season.

Players like Trevor Ariza and Anthony Davis have missed loads of games, and Kendrick Nunn has yet to even suit up for his new team.

As a result, the lineup has often resembled a game of musical chairs, making it very hard for Westbrook and the rest of the players to get comfortable with one another.

The unfortunate truth is that there is no way to predict when or if this trend will end. While the Lakers are getting back to full strength at the moment, things could easily start trending the other direction at any moment.

The Lakers are currently 24-24, good enough for the No. 9 seed in the Western Conference. As for Green and the Warriors, they’re sitting pretty at the No. 2 seed in the West with a record of 35-13.