Michigan State Basketball: Aaron Henry will carve out solid NBA career

For the second time in about three months, Michigan State fans waited through the duration of a major draft to hear their star player’s name called only to watch him go undrafted, signing almost immediately following the final pick.

Much like the NFL draft with Shakur Brown, the NBA draft was equally disappointing for Michigan State basketball fans as Aaron Henery, who was projected as a second-rounder, went 60 picks without hearing his name called.

It was disappointing, but it felt oddly familiar to Brown in the NFL draft.

And exactly like Shakur did with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Henry signed immediately following the draft as a free agent on a two-way deal with the 76ers.

It’s almost crazy how similar Shakur and Henry’s situations were here. Both were expected to be safe picks right in the middle of their respective drafts and both saw a drastic slide that almost no one could have predicted. And they were both one of the first undrafted free agent signees in their sports, heading to the state of Pennsylvania to begin their professional careers.

And like Brown, I believe Henry will have a long, successful career in the professional ranks.

Henry is a jump shot away from being a long-time pro

I get why teams were hesitant to draft Henry. He really only had one season of being ‘the guy’ at Michigan State and his jump shot was wildly inconsistent. He played stingy defense and has that ‘it’ factor as a clutch player, but shooting around 30 percent from deep and not really possessing a lights-out mid-range jumper can limit you in the NBA.

However, if he can show that he’s worked on and improved his jumper, he could and should have a long NBA career.

Henry has the body for the NBA, he’s an explosive athlete, and a plus defender. All he needs is work on the offensive end (he’s good at driving and creating that way). He needs to add a consistent jumper and we could see him in the NBA for a long time.

Will he do it? I’d put money on it. Henry is one of the hardest-working guys out there.