Desi Sills is out. After signing with Auburn on May 5th, his transfer process to Auburn was unable to go through, causing him to now transfer to Arkansas State

With his departure, Bruce Pearl and Auburn aren’t in a bad spot, but the rotation has to be shuffled around a little bit.

Auburn does still have two scholarship spots remaining if they were to go out and find a replacement for Sills.

Point Guard

1 — Zep Jasper

2 — Wendell Green Jr.

3 — K.D. Johnson

Not a huge change at point guard for Auburn with Sills gone. Zep Jasper and Wendell Green Jr. will still act as the No. 1 and No. 2 point guards, however, that ends up shaking out.

The only change comes at the No. 3 spot. In a previous look at the rotation, K.D. Johnson and Desi Sills were listed as potential No. 3’s. Now, obviously, that falls solely on Johnson.

Shooting Guard

1 — K.D. Johnson

2 — Devan Cambridge

3 — Allen Flanigan OR Lior Berman

Sills departing makes the route to being a starter easier for the Georgia transfer, Johnson. After missing the start of the season, Johnson became an instant-impact player off the bench for Georgia. In his first game back, Johnson scored 21 points against Auburn. He finished the season averaging 13.5 points per game on 42.2% shooting from the field and 38.7% from beyond the arc. Johnson is a natural scorer and should be a valuable scoring guard for Pearl.

Though, the starting spot still isn’t a given. With Sills gone, Devan Cambridge slides back to shooting guard and, in this scenario, is the backup shooting guard. But with two years of experience in Pearl’s system, Cambridge will still receive his fair share of minutes even if he’s coming off the bench.

Just for simple depth chart purposes, Allen Flanigan is the No. 3 at shooting guard but walk-on Lior Berman has received meaningful playing time before and could be the new No. 3.

Small Forward

1 — Allen Flanigan

2 — Chris Moore OR Devan Cambridge

3 — Jabari Smith OR Jaylin Williams

Allen Flanigan is the starting small forward. Unless Pearl plays small and Flanigan moves to the four or big and Flanigan plays the two, nevertheless, he’s somewhere in the starting lineup.

However, Sills’ departure does change up the small forward position, too. Because Cambridge is listed as the backup shooting guard, Chris Moore’s minutes should naturally go up as he could become the backup small forward.

With a little less depth at shooting guard and small forward, that could lead to Auburn running a big lineup more often than initially anticipated. Both Jaylin Williams or Jabari Smith could, in theory, move to the starting small forward spot with the other running power forward spot.

Power Forward

1 — Jabari Smith

2 — Jaylin Williams

Outside of Smith and Williams potentially playing small forward more, nothing changes at power forward. It’s still an extremely strong one-two punch of Smith and Williams and they’ll both fight for the starting spot to start the season.

Because he’s the highest-rated signee in program history, Smith gets the nod. Though, Williams has been with the program and steadily improved making him a strong contributor no matter where he is on the depth chart.

Center

1 — Walker Kessler

2 — Dylan Cardwell OR Jaylin Williams

3 — Stretch Akingbola

The only change at center from the last rotation story is adding Williams as an option at center before. He was named as an option before, but he feels worthy of being on the depth chart at center. Williams started at center during his sophomore season and Pearl is going to have to find a way to get him minutes. He’s too talented to sit on the bench. Whether it’s backup power forward or backup center, Williams will get his fair share of playing time.

Walker Kessler, arguably the biggest addition out of the transfer portal for Auburn, is most likely Auburn’s starting center. Kessler is already on campus and has begun training with the team.

Dylan Cardwell should receive a solid amount of playing time off the bench, assuming his game continues to progress.

Stretch Akingbola likely won’t receive quite as much playing time as Cardwell, but he’ll receive a few minutes per game providing valuable defense and depth at center.

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