Michigan State Basketball: 3 reasons Aaron Henry will return for junior year

3. Henry needs to improve his ball handling

If there’s one area where Aaron Henry needs to improve tenfold before he heads off to the NBA, it’s his ball-handling. He has an average ball-handler at the moment but he often gets caught off guard by aggressive defenders and that leads to turnovers and just overall sloppy play.

Michigan State had the luxury of relying on Cassius Winston and Rocket Watts and sometimes Foster Loyer to handle point guard duties during the 2019-20 season, but obviously the Spartans have some slashers who like to create their own shots by driving and Henry is one of them. If he didn’t have a wide open lane, he was prone to coughing the ball up or dribbling it off his leg.

Henry is the best athlete on the team and to watch him struggle to hold onto the ball on a good chunk of his drives to the hoop throughout the season was tough. If he was even a little better with the ball in his hands, he would be a much better pro prospect.

NBA teams aren’t looking for wings who can shoot at an average to slightly above average clip and who have freakish athleticism but can’t put the ball on the floor. That just won’t fly at the next level.

Henry must come back to work on those handles and prove that he can be a guy who creates his own buckets while driving to the rim without the turnovers.