Los Angeles Lakers: Three bold predictions for Josh Hart next season

3. Josh Hart will finish with the third-most total rebounds on the Los Angeles Lakers

We had a similar prediction for Lonzo Ball, who we think is really going to blossom into an elite rebounder in his second season. One thing a lot of people do not realize is how good the Lakers are at rebounding in the backcourt. You could make the case that the Lakers have the best all-around rebounding guards in the league.

Ball will likely finish second on the team in total rebounds due to the minutes he will play next season. In front of Ball is likely going to be LeBron James, who obviously is going to receive the most minutes next season.

And while the Lakers may be very good at rebounding in the backcourt, the team is going to struggle significantly at center with just JaVale McGee and Ivica Zubac.

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When it comes to how many minutes they are playing, McGee and Zubac may be more efficent in grabbing rebounds than Hart. While their totals will still be less, over the same amount of time, McGee and Zubac should be rebounding more than Hart.

However, Hart is likely going to get the second-most minutes off the bench behind Kyle Kuzma and it would not be surprising if he gets more minutes than JaVale McGee, who will likely start at center. With Kuzma in the lineup, the Lakers are likely going to run a lot of small ball with LeBron at center.

Because of this, and due to the natural implications of a small lineup, Hart is going to get plenty of chances to rebound the basketball and is going to do so quite frequently. Last season, when he started to get hot, he averaged 7.1 rebounds in a small ball lineup.

While they had Brook Lopez, he is not great at cleaning the glass and gives the team a similar outlook as this season. Hart averaged more rebounds than Lopez last season despite not getting hot until February and playing nearly the exact same amount of minutes.

The Los Angeles Lakers rebounding leaders next season will be LeBron James, Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, Kyle Kuzma and JaVale McGee, in that order.