Phoenix– The Phoenix Suns (5-3) announced after practice on Thursday that first round picks T.J. Warren and Tyler Ennis will join the Suns D-League affiliate in Bakersfield for two games. They will play in games Friday and Saturday with Bakersfield, then rejoin the team in Los Angeles on Saturday night when the Suns embark on an East Coast trip after their game against the Clippers.

Suns coach Jeff Hornacek wants to get his rookies playing time and confidence in case they are needed on the long road trip.

“T.J. had been injured and missed a lot of practice days with his finger and hasn’t had a lot of action,” Hornacek said. “Tyler had a lot of practice, but not a lot of game time. It will be good for them to go down there and play, we will take them on the trip and hopefully keep their confidence going.”

This season begins the Suns’ single-affiliation partnership with Bakersfield, which allows the Suns to essentially dictate how they want their players used when they go down. Hornacek spoke very highly of Bakersfield’s newly hired coach Nate Bjorkgren and is confident that his players will learn something any time they go to Bakersfield.

“Nate is a great coach,” Hornacek said. “He understands what we do and a lot of times he does that stuff. It should be a seamless transition for those guys. Nate is very positive and encouraging and he should help them.”

Warren was the 14th pick of the first round, but has only seen action in one minute of one game thus far. He missed two and a half weeks with a fractured thumb that has held the N.C. State forward back. Ennis, picked four spots after Warren, has only played in two games.

Eric Bledsoe’s turnovers becoming a problem?

The Suns guard has turned the ball over 23 times in the past four games, including seven on Wednesday night in just 23 minutes of action. Hornacek feels like Bledsoe’s high turnover rate is partly due to some bad luck, but isn’t too concerned of it being a lingering issue.

“Some are and he is the first one to admit that,” Hornacek said when asked how many turnovers were Bledsoe’s fault. “We talked about it, but some of them are not his fault.

“Bobbles here that he gets credit for, a pass to the wing where if a guy as a shooter, the reaction should be there. Just a combination of things. I think he has came out of the third quarter and played pretty well the last few games, but we need that from the start. I told him to be more aggressive in the beginning of the game. He brings us defense and we need him out there.”

Bledsoe went through stretches last season of having high-turnover games with 23 being the highest number of any four game stretch, which he also had at the end of last season. If the silly turnovers can be limited then Hornacek can live with a few a game.

“I think it depends on what kind of turnovers they are,” Hornacek said. “If it’s the home run kind of play, we don’t want those. If he’s making a good pass, you know if you make a lot of them some of them will get stolen. A couple a game is not killer.”

Free throw shooting among best in NBA

Through two weeks of the season the Suns are shooting 81 percent from the charity stripe, which is good for third-best in the NBA. Last season the team shot 75 percent, which was middle of the pack. The Suns are 53-for-62 in their last two wins, and you could argue that the free throw shooting is what allowed them to win those games.

“That has been helping us,” Hornacek said. “Last year for the type of shooters we had, we didn’t shoot the free throw well, now we are shooting 81 percent and that will help you.”