Brevin Knight is realistic. While his emotions and his competitive fires may tell him otherwise, he knows he is in the latter stages of his NBA career.

“OK, let’s get this out of the way first,” he said when the Charlotte Bobcats gathered for their camp- opening media session last month. “I’m old. And I know I’m not the point guard of the future here.”

Perhaps not. Logic dictates players can get only so much mileage out of their bodies in an 82-game season. And Knight, 31 and in his 10th season in the league, has already gotten a lot out of his 5-10, 170-pound frame.

That doesn’t mean he is on his last legs, however. While swelling in his left knee kept him out of a Saturday night loss at Orlando and a lower calf strain forced him out in the first half of Monday’s 93-85 loss to the Dallas Mavericks and could possibly prevent him from playing in Wednesday’s game against the Celtics, age has brought with it some of Knight’s best basketball moments.

He is producing statistics that are at or near his career-high levels and helping stabilize a Bobcats roster that is dominated by youth.

Playing in a starting backcourt with Raymond Felton, a second-year pro blessed with exceptional speed and talent and the team’s point guard of the future, Knight is instinctively using his experience to help keep the Bobcats competitive.

In the process he has built averages of 13.8 points, 6.6 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 2.11 steals. Perhaps even more impressive than the numbers is his savvy, knowing when to turn the game’s tempo up or down, how to get the ball into the hands of the right teammate with time running out on the 24-second shot clock.

“That’s experience,” Bobcats General Manager & Head Coach Bernie Bickerstaff said. “That’s all that is. Brevin has been around a long time and he recognizes things out there because of his experience. The young kids just have to get it, and it’s an experience they have to go through... There’s no other way to get it.

“I think where we come up with a problem (without Knight) is when we end up compromising (substitute) Bernard Robinson, because Raymond has to play a lot of minutes. There were some situations the other night (in Orlando)…Gerald (Wallace) got caught with six three-pointers because the clock was ticking down to three or four seconds left on the 24-second shot clock. We put him in a situation that we should not have. The ball should go somewhere else in that situation because that’s not Gerald’s particular forte.

“That’s the recognition that Brevin has,” Bickerstaff added. “If I’ve got Gerald coming off a screen for a jump shot, I want Gerald to curl. If I’ve got Adam (Morrison) coming off, then I’ve got to make a decision. That’s knowing your teammates – and the ball should really go to Adam for a jump shot in those situations. Those are the little nuances right now that Brevin is pretty much up to speed on.”

Bickerstaff was upset not long ago with some criticism of Knight that showed up on internet message boards.

“They need to take some of the heat off Brevin,” Bickerstaff said. “I don’t think that he is objectively getting the credit that he should get in terms of what he means to this basketball team…When you’re on the outside looking in, you don’t really get the appreciation of what a guy brings to the table. “He is arguably our best player to this point.”

For his part, Knight believes that he has been playing perhaps the best basketball of his NBA career through two previous Charlotte seasons and the early stages of this season. And he attributes that to experience and the different perspective he has gained through his 546 career regular season games.

“This is definitely my best (stretch) in the NBA,” Knight said. “This is how I played in college and it feels good to get back to doing that. My rookie year (with Cleveland) was probably similar to this, (but) I don’t think I had as much confidence in my shooting as I do now.

“But in terms of just playing and enjoying playing, this, these past couple years have been my best years. I think experience is a big part of it, understanding what my abilities are and getting the most out of that. In the middle of my career I kind of fell into a shoe box of what people thought I should do, and I didn’t go out and play the way I was capable of playing.

“I told myself if I got another chance I was going to go play basketball,” Knight continued. “These past two years that’s what I’ve been doing and I’m having a lot of fun doing it…It’s a comfort to me. It’s not anything I’m feeling pressure to do. I don’t go out pressing to play a certain way. I’m just having fun playing basketball the way I normally had played before I put myself into the role that people thought I should be in.”

He is also playing with less stress and a greater comfort level.

“Those two things together leave you to be able to play your best basketball,” Knight said. “You’re not worrying . You just go out and play and do the things you’re capable of doing. I think the experience is a big part of it. I understand what my abilities are and am getting the most out of that.

“Another thing is, I’ve been asked to do more here than I have with any other team. I welcome that. I’ve worked on my game through the past couple summers to be ready for that.” This transition time for the Bobcats backcourt is apparently a smooth one with mutual benefits for Knight and Felton. And Knight has said many times that he understands that one day it will be Felton at the controls, using his own experience to keep Charlotte’s game in gear.

And while both now have major roles, Knight knows what the passing of time will bring to him, as it does to every veteran player. For him the future is now. And he’s making the most of it.

Leonard Laye covered the NBA, ABA and college basketball for more than three decades for the Charlotte Observer and the old Charlotte News until his retirement from writing sports fulltime. He will write a regular column throughout the season for BobcatsBasketball.com for his second straight year.