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Right now, Johnson is clearly at his best in the open court, playing at a faster tempo. That’s a tough skills set for this team, because the Pistons are just as clearly at their best when they move the ball and make the defense play for most of 24 seconds every time down. The Pistons have not been a very effective team in transition. Rodney Stuckey is going to change some of that, but Johnson will have to get better in half-court situations to force his way into the rotation.
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Which brings us to the other common mutation of the Amir question: Is he going to grow as impatient, and thus as disenchanted, with withering on the bench as Darko Milicic did and provoke a trade out of Detroit?
No one has seen a hint of that yet. He’s very much a wide-eyed kid who works hard every day and finds obvious joy at holding down a job doing what he loves best. Would he rather be playing? Of course. But he signed a new contract to stay in Detroit last summer knowing that Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess and Jason Maxiell were all coming back. Everyone – from Joe Dumars and his staff to Flip Saunders and his assistants to Wallace and his playing peers – keeps telling him to work hard and the payoff will be his, and he keeps nodding his head and putting in the work. It’s a brand of patience Pistons fans would be wise to adopt.
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PISTONS: Fast Track 
It's a catch-22 of sorts. He needs the experience, but he doesn't know the nuances of the game well enough for Flip to trust him yet, apparently (I don't buy it). If he's not ready, keeping him on the bench won't get him ready.