Potential 2024 No. 1 pick Ron Holland shut down for season

Highlights

• G League Ignite’s Ron Holland II undergoes thumb surgery, ending season early.
• Despite injury, Holland projects as a top-5 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft.
• Holland’s versatility, athleticism, and potential mitigates concerns about his outside shooting.

G League Ignite forward Ron Holland II will miss the remainder of the season after undergoing thumb surgery, per Andscape’s Marc J. Spears.

Holland originally suffered a right thumb injury on Jan. 31 against the Iowa Wolves. Two and a half weeks later, on Feb. 17, the Dallas native opted to shut down his 2023-24 campaign as a precautionary measure ahead of the 2024 NBA Draft. The NBA Draft, which now takes place over a two-day span, is set for Jun. 26-27.

Addressing the surgery and his rehabilitation process, Holland tells Spears: “With my injury, obviously I wanted to finish the season off, but God has a plan for everything and everybody… I’m not going to really hold my head down about it. I’m going to have a speedy recovery. And when it’s time for me to step back on the court, I’m going to be ready and prepare for the draft.”

Doubling down on his resolve, Holland says he’s “at peace with where [he’s] at my career. And I feel like all the games that I played this season, I’ve done really good. I’ve grown a lot. I’ve learned a lot about the game and about myself and just about life. I feel like I’ve put enough energy and effort in the right amount of film out there for me to say I’m able to be a top-10 draft pick.”

Bleacher Report draft expert Jonathan Wasserman has Holland being selected fifth overall in his latest mock draft.

How does Holland stack up against the competition?

Began the season as the projected No. 1 pick

Holland averaged 20.6 points (on 44.3 percent shooting), 6.6 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 2.5 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game this season. The 18-year-old is a projected top-five pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, with the potential to be selected No. 1 overall. In fact, prior to the rise of international prospects such as Alexandre Sarr, Nikola Topic, and Zaccharie Risacher, Holland was the favorite to be selected first in the upcoming draft.

“Holland is a high-level athlete with a good physique for his age,” Scotto wrote at the time. “Holland has a high motor, can guard up to four positions, and has a good feel for the game. His biggest strength is his ability to attack off the dribble and finish at the rim with either hand, thanks to his size and strength.”

The same mock draft would discuss Holland’s glaring weakness as he looks to transition to the next level: his outside jumper.

“Holland’s shooting is his biggest weakness right now,” an NBA executive told HoopsHype.

“Once that gets better, not when, he’s going to be unstoppable. He can score in the paint and mid-range. He’s got a face-up game, and he has counters to his offensive game… He’ll be a guy that gets a double-double, and he won’t have to take a jumper. As he adds the jumper and isolation moves, that’s how he’ll get up to 18 or 20 points a night. The game will come easy to him because of the energy he brings.”

It’s curious that Holland’s jumper is a sticking point when discussing his game. After all, consider that a prospect such as Serbian point guard Nikola Topic has yet to face those same types of questions despite being a backcourt player.

Frontcourt players often play an off-ball role that requires spot-up shooting, with teams hoping to maximize their spacing. Backcourt players without enough on-ball gravity also carry the risk of compromising spacing. As a result, when comparing the two, there are multiple questions as to what would make Topic a safer pick.

Nonetheless, due to the exponential rise in 3-pointers and their importance over the past decade, there’s no confusion about why his inefficiency from beyond the arc has been placed under the microscope.

To that point, Colorado forward Cody Williams and JL Bourg forward Zaccharie Risacher have risen into top-five consideration ahead of the upcoming draft, largely due to their 3-point shooting. Yet, Holland is a better playmaker than either, more assertive than Williams, and a better athlete than Risacher.

So, when splitting hairs between players, it’s not as cut-and-dry as who is the better shooter. Or at least it shouldn’t be, given Holland’s versatility, demonstrated in-season development, and easily translatable skillset.

Ultimately, his main competition could be Alexandre Sarr. The 7-foot-1 big man is slight at 217 pounds, but his athleticism defensive acumen makes him the type of weapon that teams salivate over. That he’s also shown bit of proficiency in the way of guard skills, such as handling the ball in the open floor and hitting jumpers, only adds to his intrigue.

With the 2024 NBA Draft now four months away, plenty could change between then and now. To that point, there are late risers in every draft cycle. In the case of Holland, the most dynamic of the aforementioned players, that change would give way to his name being the first one called by NBA commissioner Adam Silver as he prepares for the next stage in his basketball journey.