10 Things Mavericks need to do to gain respect in West with the help of Jim Varney

7. Dallas Mavericks need to love their Youngster

As Dallas nears the playoffs and their stars return to the lineup, there will of course be reduced minutes for some of the guys currently getting quality playing time. Davis Bertans? Sit him. McKinley Wright IV? Wrong. But Jaden Hardy should keep seeing the court.

Not that I’m saying anything revolutionary here; we can all see the kid has some game. The knock against the 20-year-old rookie would be his on/off numbers, which don’t exactly favor him. Of course, he is hardly ever on the court with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, so that is not an entirely fair metric.

Instead, consider that five of Hardy’s seven best true shooting percentage nights came in games where he played at least 15 minutes. His worst seven? He played 15 minutes in all but one of them.

In Ernest Scared Stupid, Ernest defeats the demonic troll Trantor by overloading him with the love for a child (hey, I didn’t write the movie). It would be stupid not to show Hardy a little love down the stretch and see if he can invigorate the Dallas Mavericks' second unit.