Suns forward T.J. Warren has been out for 29 straight games with right ankle soreness that occurred on Jan. 21 against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Warren came into this season with an improved three-point shooting percentage that shocked a lot of people. He went from shooting just 22 percent from distance last season all the way up to 43 percent this year.

He spent a lot of time working on that over at the PHHacility in Phoenix and at Lifetime Fitness. How do I know? I saw. Warren also worked out with his trainer in the offseason back in North Carolina attempting close to 500 per day to prepare.

The fifth year player is a gym rat. What does he do when he’s not at Talking Stick Resort Arena? He’s playing basketball somewhere either some pick up or working on his shot with his trainer and a couple of his friends. One time I saw him at the gym at 9:30pm on a Friday night.

I would be working hard on my three-point shot if I signed a bonus with incentives worth $250,000 a piece to take 185 three-pointers and shoot 37 percent, too. Warren has to attempt just five more three-pointers to get that bonus and he might come back just in time before the season ends.

“He is still rehabbing,” Suns coach Igor Kokoskov said. “He did even more conditioning yesterday so to be quite honest I’m glad you asked me this question because he is close to get back and play.”

As seen at all shoot arounds and practices, Devin Booker, Troy Daniels, and Jamal Crawford like to have three-point shooting contests and it gets pretty heated. Sometimes Josh Jackson jumps in and recently Jimmer Fredette joined the party but one guy that I was surprised to see was Warren, who hit five three-pointers in a row.

His teammates know the work he puts in and how bad he wants to get back out there on the floor.

Devin Booker and Josh Jackson would love to see TJ Warren back before the season ends. He was shooting threes with them the other day at practice pic.twitter.com/t4noD1oKSG — Ashley Nevel (@AshleyNevel) April 2, 2019

“Just seeing him healthy would mean a lot to all of us,” Jackson said. “We see him come in everyday and get treatment workout on the side, condition, he has really been taking his rehab serious and we all can’t wait to see him back.”

Phoenix has four games left in the season, and as always Kokoskov doesn’t rule anybody out despite what outsiders might think about Warren’s true status.

“There’s no conspiracy in his case,” Kokoskov said. “He’s recovering. He’s not playing tonight (against Cleveland) but from here he is going to be questionable in terms of, I just hope he’s going to be ready for next game.”

Kokoskov said just because he didn’t play on Monday against Cleveland doesn’t mean he won’t be ready to play on Wednesday against the Utah Jazz.

The Suns have had a lot of injuries this season to key players like Booker, Deandre Ayton and Kelly Oubre Jr.

Booker has been carrying an astronomically high usage rate with all the injuries, so Warren returning would be a welcome addition.

“I’ll take him,” Booker said with a smile. “But that’s his decision that he has to make depending on his health. That’s the most important thing but him being back on the floor would be a great addition for our team. The games he played he shot the ball at a very high clip this year and he has that natural scoring ability that takes a lot of pressure off you.”

Booker has shown no signs of slowing down even though the season is basically over, with no playoffs in the near future. He wants to play basketball and set the tone for next year.

“With everything we’ve been through, we’re still brothers at the end of the day,” Booker said. “We invested a lot of time together and we have a lot of genuinely good people on this team that relate to each other and want to see each other succeed.”

Suns coach Igor Kokoskov said he doesn’t believe in shutting anyone down for the season if they’re able to play plus the possibility of seeing TJ Warren back for the final few games pic.twitter.com/m94zY0yX42 — Ashley Nevel (@AshleyNevel) April 2, 2019

“We’re thinking of what we have right now, we know, this is what we’re going to get in the future so for us to develop young guys they have to compete every game, every possession, every quarter,” Kokoskov said. “If they don’t that’s not a good way to develop young guys and that’s what we know. We don’t want to sacrifice what we have right now for the future.”

Kokoskov has never been one to shut players down or follow the ‘load management’ trend and feels bad for players who are actually able to suit up but don’t.

“It’s apart of the NBA season and it’s unfortunate that you have all those guys available to play but we’re going to have five guys on the court all the time,” Kokoskov said.

The Suns will finish off their final homestead of the season against Utah and New Orleans this week. It’ll be interesting to see if Warren comes back for at least one of those before they hit the road on Sunday.