While there is still five months until the 2026-27 college basketball season tips off, we are less than one month away from the 2026 NBA Draft!

There are two former Mountain West guards — Grand Canyon’s Jaden Henley and Utah State’s MJ Collins — hoping to hear their name called on draft night, which begins June 23. Both guards competed in the NBA’s G-League combine earlier this month, but neither were invited to the Draft Combine.

This year’s class is one of the most anticipated in recent memory, although there were fewer early entrants — players departing college early — than in year’s past. Neither Collins nor Henley — who both exhausted all of their college eligibility — fit into that bucket. But the number of players who withdrew their name ahead of Thursday’s deadline could help these two as late June nears.

Heading into the 2026 cycle, there were 71 Early Entrants, 106 fewer than the amount heading into the 2025 class. However, over half — including former San Jose State guard Colby Garland, who’s transferring to Georgia Tech with one season of eligibility remaining — returned to college.

A few of them who did include Rueben Chinyelu (Florida), Milan Momcilovic (Iowa State; in transfer portal), Tyler Tanner (Vanderbilt) and Tounde Yessoufou (St. John’s; Baylor transfer). Those aren’t MW players, but ones with legitimate talent that will have an automatic ripple effect on both Collins and Henley.

There’s a higher likelihood that at least one — if not both names — could be called on draft night. I still think Henley, who’s currently No. 75 on Rookie Scale’s consensus big board, would still be the first name. But weirder stuff has happened on draft night.

Nevertheless, the chances that both players are able to find pathways to crack an NBA roster increase, albeit marginally. Each organization is allotted three two-way spots, which is expected to be north of $600K in 2026-27. Those two-way players can be active for 50 games per season. It will be an uphill climb, but both are intriguing in their own way.

Collins is an athletic multi-level scorer who averaged 17.5 points on 48.7/36.1/81.0 shooting splits last season. Henley is a hyper athletic defensive-minded big guard who’s a straight line-drive slasher. He averaged 17.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists on 46.6 percent shooting and 56.2 percent true shooting last season.

So far, Henley has either planned to, or completed a work out for the 13 teams, including the Atlanta Hawks, Dallas Mavericks, Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic and Sacramento Kings, according to HoopsHype’s workout tracker. Collins has worked out for three: The Charlotte Hornets, Indiana Pacers and Memphis Grizzlies.

Do you think either have a chance of hearing their name called in the top-60? Let us know in the comments!