We don’t dip our toes into the NBA waters very often, but we’re less than two months away from the 2026 NBA Draft! Once again, there are multiple former Mountain West players testing their waters, specifically in the G-League combine, which will begin Friday and last through Sunday in Chicago, Ill.
What do these two prospects need to do to improve each of their respective stocks?! Let’s examine!
Jaden Henley, G, Grand Canyon:
Skinny: Henley had the best season of his career in 2025-26 with Grand Canyon. Bouncing around with four
different programs in four years, Henley averaged career highs across the board, tallying 17.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.6 steals per game on 46.6 percent shooting and 56.2 percent true shooting.
The All-Mountain West first team honoree was a very explosive rim finisher; his ballhandling was good-not-great, but he did a good job exploding from his lower half through contact. He didn’t care if the low man was 6-foot-5 or 7-foot-5 — he was going to the rack with mean intentions.
Henley also defended well in Grand Canyon’s scheme defensively, which was aggressive at the point of attack with sound help principles. At 6-foot-7, 200 pounds, he has an NBA-ready body and will have some defensive versatility. He can guard multiple positions, and I project that to be his ceiling at the next level.
Where Henley must improve, however, is his shooting and playmaking. He wasn’t a good shooter, shooting just 26.8 percent from 3-point range on 3.8 attempts. For his career, he’s just a 30.7 percent long-range shooter on 2.5 attempts. Teams are smarter at scheming non-shooters now more than ever, so Henley’s going to have to clean up his mechanics and efficiency to excel offensively at the next level. If he can show some growth during the G-League combine, then that should bode better for the future, although it’s easy for anyone to shoot 5-on-0 compared to 5-on-5.
M.J. Collins, G, Utah State:
Skinny: Collins, an All-Mountain West first team honoree, broke out in his lone season with Utah State, averaging a career-high 17.5 points on 62.0 percent true shooting. He was a microwave scorer, capable of getting hot from anywhere at any moment, helping ignite the Mountain West’s best offense this season.
Standing at 6-foot-4, 190 pounds, Collins was effectively able to score from all three levels. One of my favorite traits of his was his off-ball movement. You’d be hard-pressed to find many possessions where Collins wasn’t moving, trying to find every crease and crack to exploit. He has fairly good understanding of screen leverage and how to attack those advantages. When he was able to attack as a secondary creator, Collins had pretty good feel, lift and a high release point on his jumper
Similar to Henley, Collins was an explosive leaper around the rim. He also improved as a 3-point shooter, canning 36.1 percent of his attempts after failing to exceed 29.3 percent over his first three seasons at Virginia Tech and Vanderbilt. He shot 78.4 percent from the free-throw line from 2022-25 and 81.0 percent last year; personally, I’m not super concerned. But Collins must show that wasn’t an aberration.
