Heavy competition in overhauled Auburn backcourt

Auburn's backcourt saw a massive overhaul in the off-season.

Denver Jones is the only returner of the four regular rotation guards from the previous season.

Out went Aden Holloway, Tre Donaldson and K.D. Johnson and in comes JP Pegues, Tahaad Pettiford and Miles Kelly.

"The backcourt will look a lot different," said Bruce Pearl. "We’ll obviously have a new point guard, and right now I’ve got JP and Denver Jones, Tahaad competing at that position."

Pegues, who is entering his senior season, played point guard in his first three seasons at Furman, so he's used to the position at the college level; the same can't be said for Jones and Pettiford.

Jones has been a career shooting guard in college but started to run a bit of point guard to end the season.

Per EvanMiya, Auburn's most used lineup with Jones at point guard had an adjusted net rating of 30.4 in just 25 possessions.

"He's new at the position," Pearl said. "He's got the skills and I think he's got what it takes to play the position, but it's different.

"I think it's great for his development and his understanding of the game. My anticipation is that he'll play both (guard positions.)"

Tahaad Pettiford played some point guard in high school, but he's more of a combo, scoring guard, and that's what he will play for most of the season while competing for some point guard minutes.

"Tahaad's competing at that position," Pearl said. "Even though Tahaad is still a scoring guard and still going to be even more comfortable off the ball."

Kelly, a career off-guard, went through the NBA draft process and chose to stay in school and transfer to Auburn after three seasons at Georgia Tech.

After an extremely efficient sophomore season in which he had a true shooting percentage of 54.7, that number dropped to 49 percent.

Despite the efficiency drop, Pearl and Auburn have high expectations for Kelly.

"Miles Kelly will be a real factor as one of our best guards on our team," Pearl said. "Miles has great length. He's got real good feel. He can really shoot it from great range."

Auburn's backcourt was completely overhauled outside of Jones, and it's one that the staff is excited to watch compete over the Summer.

"We’re bigger and longer and more athletic," Pearl said. "There’s really, really good competition. We’re two deep at all those backcourt positions."