When the Detroit Pistons drafted Ron Holland II with the #5 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft a lot of fans were shaking their heads.
Coming from the G-League, he’s a guy most fans didn’t get to see play much, and given the knock on him was a poor outside shot, similar to Ausar Thompson from the year before, some questioned the logic of it.
Those questions are starting to die down as the season progresses, as Holland has been slowly improving, gaining confidence and looking more like a guy who could be the best player in his draft class some day.
Credit to Trajan Langdon and JB Bickerstaff, the former for having the vision to know having two defensive dawgs on the wing is a good thing, and the latter for bringing his rookie along slowly, letting him build his game organically without the pressure past rookies have faced to produce right away.
This plan is starting to pay off, as Holland is getting better every game and now looks like a huge part of the future core as the starting small forward.
Ron Holland II’s stats the last 10 games
Holland’s numbers aren’t immediately going to jump off the page at you, but the rookie has improved to 6.4 points and 3.1 rebounds overall after a strong run in the last 10 games.
Holland is averaging 7.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists in that time while shooting an outstanding 63 percent from the field overall. He’s also hit 33 percent of his 3-point shots in that time, but numbers don’t really capture his value.
Holland’s energy changes the game every time he enters, much like Ausar Thompson, and the two are absolute agents of chaos on the perimeter defensively.
Holland was everywhere in his short run against the Lakers, coming up with 10 points four rebounds, a block and steal, the latter of which led to a huge dunk the other way. He did all of this in just 13 minutes.
Given that he is still a teenager, fans should be excited that he is already one of the best defenders on the team and has flashed two-way ability, especially as a finisher around the rim.
Credit to JB Bickerstaff again, as he hasn’t overexposed Holland, but has made him earn minutes off the bench, slowing ramping up his playing time.
He isn’t getting much individual attention in the All-Rookie race but that will change if the Pistons keep winning and Holland keeps providing big minutes off the bench.
I’ve been seeing a lot of Jimmy Butler comps lately and while it’s way too soon for that kind of talk, there are some similarities in their games. The biggest difference is that Butler was three years older than Holland as a rookie.
It may not have made much sense to fans at the time, but it looks like Trajan Langdon may have hit a homerun and found one of his wings of the future. At some point this season, I hope we get to see Holland in a larger role to see how this recent success translates in longer run.