Ron Holland II has reached the point where promise alone won’t be enough for the Pistons.
Two seasons in, Detroit still doesn’t have a clean answer for what he’s going to become. That’s not entirely surprising.
He just turned 21, and unlike a lot of top-five picks who land on rebuilding teams and get handed endless minutes, Holland was drafted into a playoff group with real depth. The Pistons didn’t have to rush him, and they didn’t need him to carry anything right away.
That patience has kept his early NBA run from being defined by pressure. Holland has been useful in bursts, especially as a defender who can inject chaos and flip the tempo with stops and transition offense. But the offensive side of the equation remains fuzzy, and that’s where the real test begins as he heads into his third season.
The timeline is starting to matter, too. Holland’s rookie-scale deal becomes much more expensive in 2027-28, when it rises to $11.5 million. For a player who was arguably less important last season than journeyman Javonte Green, that’s not a number the Pistons can ignore forever.
Detroit doesn’t need Holland to turn into a star overnight. What it does need is evidence that he’s more than just a defensive spark plug.
The front office has to figure out where he fits alongside the team’s young core. Is he a 6th Man?
A scorer who can give you 15-20 a night? A defensive specialist?
A 3-and-D wing?
That uncertainty is the heart of the problem.
The fit question gets even sharper next to Cade Cunningham and Ausar Thompson. Detroit already has one elite wing defender who can’t shoot in Thompson, and the awkward part is that Thompson is not only better defensively than Holland, but better at everything else as well. Right now, the Pistons can’t comfortably keep both on the floor together because of the spacing issues it creates.
If Holland starts hitting 3-pointers at a high rate, that changes fast. If he doesn’t, then the overlap with Thompson becomes hard to justify, and it’s not Thompson who’s going anywhere if that continues.
Holland doesn’t need to turn into prime Klay Thompson. He just needs to show that his jumper is moving in the right direction.
That’s the clearest path to making sense next to Cunningham and Thompson. A dribble-drive game could help, but that feels like the less likely route.
At some point, being drafted fifth overall has to mean something more than becoming a steady bench piece. If Holland doesn’t start revealing either a long-term fit or real star upside, the Pistons may have to rethink what he is to them.
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The Pistons spent the offseason acting like a team that believes its window is open, not one still waiting for the right moment. After a 4-2 playoff loss to the Knicks, Detroit reworked its roster to give Cade Cunningham more help, adding John Collins and Isaiah Joe to improve the offense and deepen the rotation around Cunningham, Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson. It was the kind of targeted reshaping that follows a 60-win season, with the front office clearly trying to turn regular-season momentum into something sturdier in the East.
Jalen Duren remains one of the central reasons that plan still feels unfinished. Detroit has the top-end talent to matter in the conference, but it also has a negotiation that has lingered into late August, leaving one of the rosters biggest questions unresolved as other contenders around the league continue to load up. The Pistons have built enough around Cunningham to look the part, but the final step toward true contention may depend on how they handle the issue still hanging over their young core. [Read more 🡒]