In Wednesday’s home opener for the Detroit Pistons, rookie point guard Brandon Knight was brilliant. In just 29 minutes off the bench, the eighth overall pick from this year’s draft put up 23 points (on 10-13 shooting), six assists, two steals, and just two turnovers.

Knight’s magnificent performance begs the question: Should he start at point guard for the Pistons? Right now the answer seems to be “no”, according to head coach Lawrence Frank.

Via the Detroit News, Frank said that the Pistons “have other very talented players, too” and that ”minutes have to be based on merit.”

This is likely true – the Pistons backcourt is arguably their greatest strength at this point – but why shouldn’t Knight start?

Part of the reason might be that Pistons management is afraid of giving too much, too soon to such a young player in Knight (he just turned 20) like they did to Rodney Stuckey.

For a brief history lesson, Stuckey was drafted by Detroit in 2007, had a fairly decent rookie season, and had moments of greatness in the playoffs against Boston. In the fall of 2008, starting point guard Chauncey Billups was traded away to open up playing time for Stuckey.

And though Stuckey has gradually improved since then, it’s mostly been downhill ever since for the team as a whole. To his credit,  Stuckey’s currently on his fourth head coach in five seasons, making it difficult to pinpoint how much blame he truly deserves.

Either way, it’s easy to understand why Pistons’ brass is reluctant to fully unleash Knight.

But it’s likely Knight will start soon rather than later. He’s the Pistons’ most intriguing guard – and the best “point” guard on the roster – and their best young player other than center Greg Monroe.

And while Pistons fans no doubt want to see Knight in the starting lineup as soon as possible, it shouldn’t matter much if he’s starting as long as he’s playing significant minutes. Last night Knight played 29 minutes off the bench – just three less minutes than Stuckey.

It’s easy to say one player should start over another, but you have to take into account the rest of the starting lineup. As MLive’s Justin Rogers notes, starting Knight (189 lbs) next to Ben Gordon (200 lbs) likely means the Pistons will have a major weight disadvantage to opposing teams’ backcourts each and every game.

One of Stuckey’s greatest advantages is that he’s bigger and stronger than most point guards and can defend most shooting guards, leaving the smaller Gordon to defend the usually small player at point guard. But playing Knight (6-3) and Gordon (6-3) together is going to mean serious height mismatches for whomever is forced to guard opposing teams’ shooting guards.

Knight’s time will come, especially if he keeps putting up 23 points per game along with 6 assists per game. But Knight should and will earn additional playing time rather than it just being handed to him like Stuckey.

Don’t be surprised when you see that he’s Detroit’s starting point guard by February.