Pistons grind past Hornets: Reed's heavy minutes, Jenkins' lift and Holland's slide

The Pistons are 4-1 and back on top of the Eastern Conference after a 97-89 win over the Charlotte Hornets. It wasn't pretty. Detroit didn't look sharp for long stretches, but it found a way to turn a deficit into a win, and in a long season that's the kind of result contenders have to bank. Here's what I took from it.

Paul Reed carried a heavy load, and that's a problem

With Jalen Duren out, Paul Reed played more than 38 minutes. Playing that much on the second night of a back-to-back is a lot to ask of any big man, and it's hard to call it ideal for a team that wants to stay fresh over 82 games.

Part of the reason was John Collins' foul trouble. Head coach Bickerstaff wants Reed on the floor for as many minutes as he can handle, and when Reed sits, Bickerstaff has been running small-ball lineups with Collins at the five. That's a reasonable answer for one game. It doesn't answer the bigger question.

My read is that the Pistons need another real center option in the rotation. Bickerstaff doesn't seem to trust Tolu Smith yet, and if the third-string center can't earn minutes when the starter is out, the coaching staff ends up leaning on its starter's backup far too heavily. That's how a single injury turns into a fatigue issue. Teams in this spot often find that the fix is less about one signing and more about giving a developing big a real window to prove himself in meaningful minutes.

Daniss Jenkins is becoming central to this team

Coming into the season, there was some doubt about whether Jenkins could repeat what he did last year. He emerged as a rotation-caliber player, but his production was uneven and his efficiency wasn't great. With new arrivals in Detroit, it was fair to wonder where he'd fit.

Wednesday answered a lot of that. Jenkins was a key piece of the second-half comeback, finishing with 14 points, two rebounds and two assists in 24 minutes. He shot 6-of-10 from the field and 2-of-4 from three, and he's kept his shooting hot through the first five games.

What stands out more than the box score is how he plays on both ends. He creates shots and makes the right reads as a playmaker, and he isn't a liability defensively. Players who can do both tend to earn more minutes as the season goes on, and if Jenkins keeps knocking down jumpers from deep, a bigger role looks like a natural next step. That said, a 24-minute night is a sample, not a trend. The sustained version of this will be the story to watch.

Ron Holland is running out of time to find his rhythm

Holland had already started the season slowly, and Wednesday was a low point. The third-year forward looked out of sorts, and every mistake, foul or turnover seemed to chip away at his confidence. Across a 12-minute stint, he was barely looking at the rim and was passing the ball away almost immediately whenever it reached him.

Here's the thing: Holland still has real defensive value. Even on nights when his offense falters, he can affect possessions on that end. But at this stage, it's getting hard to justify keeping him on the floor while his offensive contributions remain this limited. When he's committing fouls and turnovers, the defensive upside gets swallowed by the mistakes, and the math stops working.

The likely outcome is a shrinking role if nothing changes. Young players in this situation usually get a short runway to adjust, and the ones who recover tend to do it by simplifying their game and rebuilding confidence in small, repeatable actions before they're asked to do more. Holland has the tools to make that adjustment. The question is whether he can find that version of himself before the rotation settles around someone else.

The win matters because it came against a team Detroit needed to beat without playing its best basketball. The Pistons still have plenty to fix at center and in the wing rotation, but they're 4-1, and the people in those rotation spots now have a clear picture of what's expected from them.