So far, Jaden Henley is the third member of the Detroit Pistons’ Summer League team to head back to college
During the start of the offseason, the Detroit Pistons brought in several guards for pre-draft workouts with the team holding the 21st overall selection. Ultimately, the Pistons made a deal to land former Stanford point guard Ebuka Okori at the No. 17 spot, but Detroit made sure to survey the field ahead of the draft to scout some low-risk, high-upside players at the end of the draft as well.
Among that group was Jaden Henley, a 6-7 guard from Grand Canyon who started all 32 games for the Antelopes last season as the team’s leading scorer and top steal generator going the other direction. Playing at his fourth school in four years, Henley settled in for one of Grand Canyon’s most productive single-season performances last year and participated in a workout with the Pistons before the 2026 NBA Draft.
As it turned out, Henley went undrafted once the two-day event wrapped up, but the Pistons brought him in on an Exhibit 10 contract so that he could take part in Summer League before deciding on his future. Henley played in all five exhibition contests for Detroit in July with an average of 11.8 minutes per game, though he failed to crack the starting lineup in that brief timespan. Still, Henley managed to break out with a seven point, five rebound, one assist effort in 10 minutes of Summer League play against the New York Knicks, so the rookie showed a bit of promise in his Pistons cameo.
But after a recent Colorado court ruling, players from the 2022 high school recruiting class are able to return to the college ranks in some cases, so Henley is set to take the same path as fellow Pistons Summer Leaguers Roddy Gayle Jr. and Corey Stephenson by choosing to return to school for another season.
While Stephenson is trying out his luck at a different school by committing to Ole Miss, both Henley and Gayle look like they’re going to run it back with their previous squads. Gayle has already traveled with Michigan overseas for a game against Lithuania, and even though he didn’t factor into the game it appears that Gayle will suit up as a Wolverine once again.
Henley, on the other hand, recently made it known that he plans to re-sign with Grand Canyon for the 2026-27 campaign, so that will mark his first return for a second season at a school after one-year stints at Minnesota as a freshman, DePaul as a sophomore and UNLV as a junior. Last season, Henley posted 17.7 points per game for the Antelopes, so his scoring and experience is sure to help Grand Canyon immensely moving forward, but it also puts an impromptu punctuation on his professional career.
This year, the NBA’s Summer League has been used as a trial period for hoopers before returning to college considering three Pistons players have followed that same path already, but perhaps Detroit will take another look at the tall, athletic guard when the next draft window opens up.
