On Thursday, the Los Angeles Lakers announced that rookie Josh Hart fractured a finger on his left (non-shooting) hand.

Averaging 6.6 points and 3.7 rebounds in 21.5 minutes over 55 games for the Lakers this season, Hart was recently inserted into the starting lineup, where he took his game to new heights in March.

In that month, he averaged 12.2 points and 7.4 rebounds in 32.1 minutes per game. He also scored in double-figures in eight of his 10 contests played. In that span, Hart was very efficient, shooting 51.8 percent from the field, including 48.9 percent from three-point range.

Although the Lakers are out of playoff contention, the injury certainly didn’t come at a great time. With 21 games remaining, Hart was expected to receive minutes alongside fellow youngsters Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma, all of whom seemingly make up part of the team’s future.

But on Friday, it was revealed that Hart will undergo surgery.

As a result, the rest of his season is in jeopardy, as the team has no reason to rush him back to action.

"It's one of those things, obviously there's zero rush to bring him back," coach Luke Walton said Thursday, per ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk. "But if he's healthy and ready to play and we've got a couple of weeks left [in the season], then yeah we'll get him back on the court.”

The Lakers will now have to adjust their rotations and will ask certain players to be more versatile.

"We're going to have different guys step up, different guys play new roles, bigger roles," Walton added. "And we got to kind of figure it out still as we go, because there's going to be lineups out there that haven't played together much. Like I said earlier, we'll probably get [Kyle] Kuzma at some 3 as well as 4 now, so guys just got to be ready to play.”

Kuzma picked up 28 minutes off the bench in Thursday’s win over the Miami Heat while Isaiah Thomas logged 30. Ball was on the court for 34 while Kentavious Caldwell-Pope logged 36. Therefore, it seems like Walton might administer a tight rotation moving forward while splitting Hart’s minutes among the aforementioned guards.

"[Hart is] very important," Ball said on Wednesday. "Double-double pretty much every time he steps out there, one of our best defenders and also rebounds a lot. He helps a lot, especially defensively.”

The Lakers thrived without Hart on Thursday, beating Miami 131-113, but it’s a shame that the young guard might not be able to close out his rookie year on a positive note. However, Hart most likely did enough to show the team what he can offer and should be expected to hold a rotational role next season.