Detroit Pistons: Is Ron Holland II Due For A Breakout Season?

Midway through the offseason, the Detroit Pistons have worked tirelessly to bring in a new element of perimeter firepower after middling success from three-point range last season. Duncan Robinson was most notably the Pistons’ singular long-range threat a year ago with a hit rate of over 40% from distance, but Trajan Langdon has worked hard to bring in a slew of shooters with John Collins, Isaiah Joe, Taurean Prince and Gary Harris joining the squad. 

All four of those players were 40% three-point shooters a season ago spread across varying degrees of playing time, so they should serve to improve the Pistons’ efficiency outside of the paint for the 2026-27 campaign. However, a couple of those new players could be competing with third-year forward Ron Holland for playing time, and it will be intriguing to see how those battles shake out for the former top five draft pick. 

So far, Holland was able to take a noticeable leap in terms of both playing time and productivity last season. Holland was on the floor for almost five more minutes per game, and he took 1.9 more shots, grabbed 1.3 more rebounds and doubled his steals output by pickpocketing ball handlers 1.2 times per game in his second season. However, when the Pistons made it into the postseason and particularly in the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Holland struggled to find playing time and racked up multiple DNPs for the first time all year, so there could be some debate regarding whether Detroit trusted the aggressive slasher to produce offensively during crunch time. 

That speculation should only come into play regarding his offensive impact since Holland looked like an even more difficult matchup to face on defense than he did as a rookie, much in the mold of Ausar Thompson in terms of his ability to guard at the point of attack. Now, Thompson is a generational perimeter defender who landed on the NBA’s All-Defensive First Team last season, but the two players are similar in the sense that they have a long wingspan and pride themselves on making life difficult for opposing scorers. Both players have existing question marks regarding how complete their offensive game is, but they are deployed to significantly tip the scales in Detroit’s favor when on defense, and they do an excellent job in that role. 

But for Holland to continue his upward trajectory and establish an even more concrete role for himself in the Pistons’ rotation that lasts into the playoffs, the G-League Ignite product will need to assert himself as a more reliable, consistent three-point shooter. Detroit does not necessarily expect for Holland to match the efficiency of Robinson or Joe from downtown, but they will need for him to possess reasonable perimeter gravity so that opposing defenses do not willingly leave him open from beyond the arc. If that improvement materializes, Holland will help create more space for Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren to operate in the paint, and he’ll benefit the squad even more as a somewhat dangerous shooter from the outside, which would be a win-win for both parties. 

So far, Holland has stayed busy in the offseason and has spent a lot of time in the gym working on his game, which includes his three-point stroke, so his rate of change from year two to three will be important to watch when the pre-season and regular season eventually tip-off in October. 

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