Ron Holland II's rankings among NBA rookies

After trudging through another historically bad season last year, the Detroit Pistons, once again, had the best odds to land the first overall draft pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. And, once again, they fell as far as they could, eventually selecting at fifth overall. 

There was a silver lining, however, as if there were a draft class in which you fell, it was this one. There wasn’t a Victor Wembanyama waiting for the worst team in the NBA (Detroit fans still should be upset about this). There was no Cooper Flagg at the end of the tunnel. Instead, sandwiched between the two expected generational draftees, was this class. One in which Detroit took a swing on a highly talented, high motor wing with possibly one of the highest upsides in the class. 

So, in a class that was widely reported to be one of the weakest of all time, there have actually been quite a few first year players who are contributing at an elite clip thus far in their young careers. Let’s take a look at where Ron Holland falls compared to them. 

Ron Holland II vs. NBA Rookies: Playing Time

Ron Holland has been thrown in the sweet spot of playing time so far this season. Since Detroit has been so bad for so long, we’ve gotten used to the fact that our, usually top-five, draft pick is expected to come to Detroit and immediately play high leverage minutes. For some players, this works. For others, this can be too much trial by fire, and they can develop bad habits. The opposite of that coin, however, is that there are too many mouths to feed, and not enough minutes to go around. Obviously this limits the growth of your rookies and can be just as detrimental. 

Thanks partially to Ausar Thompson’s injury at the end of last season in addition to the veterans that Langdon has brought to Detroit, Ron Holland has had the luxury of playing good minutes, while not over-extending himself. He’s slowly being trusted in higher leverage situations, but is still able to watch and learn. Out of 43 rookies, Holland is almost exactly in the middle in terms of minutes per night, averaging 15.2 a game. For reference, Bub Carrington, on the horrendous Wizards, is averaging almost double that at 29.3.

Ron Holland II stats: Points, Assists, Rebounds, Etc.

While he was mid-pack for minutes per game, Holland is slightly higher in points per game, coming in at number 18 with 5.5 points per contest. When Detroit drafted Holland, he was closer to a do-it-all wing similar to Ausar Thompson than anything else. He’s 14th in rebounds (3 per game), 32nd in assists (.5 per game), 18th in steals (.5 per game), and 19th in turnovers (.8 per game).

Going deeper into the numbers, Out of 71 rookies, Holland is 29th in offensive rating with 106.2, which is higher than the above mentioned Bub Carrington, and 43rd in defensive rating, and has an overall net rating of -4.1, which is good for 36th. 

Finally, Holland is connecting on 39 percent of his shots, which is 40th in the class, but just 11 percent from three. This was a known area of weakness for the high motor wing, but it’s been worse than expected.

Nothing really screams elite about his stats so far, but he’s been good enough in which coach JB Bickerstaff is still able to play Holland and deploy him wherever he sees fit and not be a liability so far.

Rookie of the Year

As mentioned above, Ron Holland’s rookie year hasn’t screamed elite, but I think it’s safe to say most people are happy with what they’ve seen from him. He’s shown poise in crunch time, having multiple steals and tough drives to the basket in final minutes of games, but has shown his inexperience too, specifically when he missed both free throws against the Bucks with the game tied and less than a second remaining.

In terms of Rookie of the Year candidacy, that honor has all but passed Ron by. Guys like Jared McCain and Dalton Knecht are running away with the award at this time, both of whom look to be absolute steals from the draft. At the time of this writing, Holland has the 17th best odds for ROY at +30000.  

It’s important to acknowledge that it’s not all bad so far for Ron. Rookies who are allotted more minutes will obviously have higher averages, plus he’s still one of the youngest players in the NBA, so gauging Holland in this capacity must be taken with a grain of salt. The eye test tells you that while his numbers may be middling, Ron is doing just fine this year. I’d give him a solid B- thus far.