NBA Draft 2024 live updates and picks tracker: Bronny James projections, Round 2 start time, trade rumors and Round 1 recap

I actually like Ron Holland as a player, and this isn’t his fault that the Detroit Pistons took him at No. 5. I think he’s going to turn out to be a useful NBA player in some respect, with some potential for significant upside. But, man, another wing who can’t shoot is just the last thing this Pistons team needed unless they’re planning on offloading some of their other recently-drafted young players.

In an NBA that is more shooting-conscious than ever, the Pistons have drafted non-shooters to be significant parts of their core in the lottery in three straight drafts. In 2022, they took Jalen Duren. He’s a center, so it’s more manageable, but the NBA is becoming more five-out on offense than ever. In 2023, they took Ausar Thompson, who is one of the biggest projects as a shooter that I can remember among top-10 picks. And this year, it’s Holland, who made under 25 percent from 3. Even Jaden Ivey, whom they selected at No. 5 in 2022, isn’t really a player who gets aggressively guarded off the ball like a shooter. Neither does Isaiah Stewart, despite his improvement as a shooter in his first years.

The team just is going to have absolutely no space to operate. And while you don’t have to necessarily play all of these guys at once, in all likelihood you’re probably going to play at least two or three of them with Cade Cunningham. That’s the reality of taking guys in the top five when you’ve been a bad team. You hope that these guys can develop together into a cohesive unit that eventually turns your organization around.

More than anything, I think a pick like this just makes Cunningham’s life drastically harder. A maestro out of ball screens and a dynamic midrange pull-up scorer, Cunningham already generally struggles to find any space in the midrange to make plays, either for himself or his teammates. Holland isn’s going to help that.

The Pistons would likely counter with two points. First, new president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon just brought renowned shooting coach Fred Vinson with him from New Orleans. Vinson is regarded as one of the best shooting coaches in the league, but he’s not a miracle worker. Holland and Thompson are multi-year projects as shooters, even with both being regarded as having great work ethics. It’s going to take a lot of time to get them even to a workable place where they’re making spot-up shots at a high enough level to where defenders even care about defending them. Second, they’d point to free agency and the ability to take players on in trades as a way to add shooting. At the end of the day, these players that they’ve taken in the lottery are all guys that have serious expectations in one way or another, and will likely need playing time. There’s only so much help that a free-agent or trade-acquisition shooter can bring if they’re not stars coming to join the fray here.

Again, I like Holland as a player. I just don’t get the fit. I would have traded down, and I think my price-point threshold to trade down and acquire assets would have been lower than Langdon’s.

Here are the rest of my winners and losers from the first night of the NBA Draft.