Under the Hood – it’s time to see what’s really going on inside this Pistons team.
Last night was one of those games where you could see the vision for what Ron Holland could become. In just 20 minutes, he finished with 17 points, three rebounds, and a steal while shooting 6-for-11 from the field and 3-for-6 from deep.
To me, his biggest area of growth his is three-point shooting – he’s currently shooting 28.1% on 2.8 attempts per game, up from 23.8% and 1.9 attempts last year. Majority of his attempts this season have come from the right corner where he’s 9-for-25 (36%) so far.
I like this first possession where he has a drive-and-kick opportunity, but with nothing produced from it, he relocates to the corner to space out the floor. He takes his time once he receives the pass and he knocks down the shot with confidence.
If Blaha says the bank is open, the bank is open.
Ultimately, I believe this is how Ron can be used best as a 3-and-D wing – become a threat from the corners with a reliable three-point shot.
Ron’s still one of the youngest players in the league and it’s only the beginning of his second season, so he’s still learning when to drive and when to shoot.
This will improve over time with more possessions like this, but he has to shoot this ball – Duncan creates a wide open three-point attempt for him, yet he decides to drive into Robert Williams III and gets stuffed at the rim.
I’m going to reuse a clip that I used in the previous Under the Hood, but Ron did the same thing last game against Milwaukee. He had a wide open three-pointer, but he instead drove into a packed lane to get a layup attempt. With more practice and confidence over time, Ron will learn to let these fly.
Ron’s slashing style is different from Ausar or Cade who can play with a change-of-pace on their way to the rim. RoHo is more of a straight-line driver who can use his speed and size to get into the lane when he thinks he sees an alley.
While it didn’t work for him in the above two clips, he still had plenty of strong drives last night that will only continue to become more available as the strength of his three-point shooting grows.
Nothing fancy – just one dribble into a quick burst to get to the rim and draw the and-one.
This next one was a great drive. He instantly attacks Jerami Grant’s top foot to beat him off the dribble and uses that patented RoHo eurostep to make the layup.
If I was on the coaching staff, I’d be showing Ron these last two clips in comparison with the two from the Transmission Trouble section to show the difference in quality between drives.
The defenders are much closer to him and the three-point line to provide him with more room and space to beat them off the dribble.
An athletic, 3-and-D forward that can hit mid-30s from three-point land in the corners is a very, very valuable piece next to Cade – Ron is on his way to turn into that piece.