The Detroit Pistons are bringing Ron Holland along as another elite perimeter defender, but the question remains as to whether he can eventually reach the level that Ausar Thompson has established on defense so far
When the Detroit Pistons drafted Ron Holland in the top five of the 2024 NBA Draft, the organization knew that the wiry forward would need some time to develop his offensive skill set, but that is not the role that he was drafted for. Given Holland’s natural speed, aggressiveness and basketball instincts, the 6-8 forward made his name in the G-League with the Ignite thanks to his defensive prowess by averaging 2.3 steals per game during his lone season in the developmental league, and he’s kept that same tenacity through two seasons in the Motor City.
So far, Holland had primarily suited up on the Pistons’ second unit, and he’s played a key role in the hard-nosed defensive culture that head coach J.B. Bickerstaff set out to establish in Detroit. Holland has only started seven games for the Pistons up to this point, which is a relatively low number for such a high draft pick, but it is an understandable reality since he’s competing with Ausar Thompson for playing time.
But instead of viewing Holland and Thompson as an either-or situation, the two players have worked together to keep at least one elite defender on the court for the Pistons at virtually all times over the last two years.
According to the graphic above, Thompson clears every other NBA player in terms of his defensive impact when compared to his offensive contributions. Now, that does indicate that AT is somewhat one-dimensional in his impact thus far, but Thompson has worked to become more dynamic during his team in the pros. Similarly, Holland checks out as the second-highest hooper in terms of defensive talent vs. offensive talent, which clearly underscores the fact that the Pistons covet defensive intensity on the wing.
In a sense, Holland stepped into an ideal situation in Detroit since Thompson is expected to start every game when he’s available, and that allows for the younger Piston to act as a protege and understudy to the most impactful perimeter and point-of-attack defender in the NBA. And to that effect, Thompson finished in third place for the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award this past season, which should effectively prove that there is a method to the Pistons’ defensive madness.
Detroit has experimented with the possibility of playing both Thompson and Holland on the floor together at the same time, and the result has virtually always been a chaotic, smothering presence on defense that opposing teams find difficult to counter. With both Thompson and Holland guarding the other team’s top two scoring threats, there simply are not many outlets for offensive success when playing the Pistons.
However, Holland has been working steadfast to change the narrative that he’s solely a contributor on the defensive end by working on his three-point shot in order to establish more perimeter gravity, and the results toward the end of the 2025-26 campaign shine a positive light on that effort. During the final 15 games of the regular season, Holland shot 40.6% on the 2.1 three-point attempts that he was taking each game. If that shooting rate can continue heading into next season, Holland will have much more value as a two-way player that must be accounted for on both offense and defense.
But for the time being, Holland deserves some credit for his ability to lock down players in the halfcourt while generating 1.2 stocks per game. Thompson, on the other hand, posted 2.5 stocks each night, so it is clear that Holland still has some work to do in order to reach AT’s level of defensive pressure.
With both players on the squad, the Pistons have multiple high-level defenders at the point-of-attack to utilize, both of which can generate turnovers in bunches, and their ability to do so gives Detroit a defensive puzzle that proved difficult to crack. Thompson logged nearly seven more minutes per game last season, so it should not be a shock that he racked up more stocks to his credit.
In any event, the Pistons can deploy two elite defenders at their discretion moving forward, and that’s a luxury that most teams simply do not have.
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