Phoenix Suns: 5 goals for T.J. Warren in 2017-18

4. Average 7-8 rebounds per game

This mark seems a bit lofty considering Warren’s 5.1 rebounds per game last season were a career-high, but there’s also reason to believe he could actually reach this goal of 7-8 rebounds per game in 2017-18.

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For starters, the Suns need all the help on the boards they can get with Tyson Chandler being a possible trade candidate and Alen Len currently unsigned/not a legitimate starting center anyway. At 6’8″, Warren can certainly help on the glass from his position.

Then there’s the fact that a mysterious head injury really threw him off in the first place. Without that setback, perhaps we’d be talking about Tony Buckets as this team’s fixture at small forward, since he was averaging 20 points and five rebounds per game through the first 11 games of the season before the injury.

Finally, a look at Warren’s production after the All-Star break is encouraging when it comes to taking care of the boards. With Chandler shut down at that point, Warren stepped up with 7.7 rebounds in 35 minutes per game, posting five double-doubles in a 22-game span to close the season.

That’s a small sample size, and Chandler and Len could very well be on the roster for the entire 2017-18 season. But in the home stretch of 2016-17, Warren fine-tuned another element of his game that could be sustainable.