Tahaad Pettiford continues to play his best games against Auburn’s best opponents.

He scored 20 points against Duke, 14 against Iowa State and 21 in Auburn’s early season win over Houston. However, despite having 20 points and being arguably Auburn’s top offensive performer against Duke, he was substituted at the 3:42 mark with Auburn down by six, and didn’t return until there were only 33 seconds left in the game.

Pettiford was replaced by Denver Jones, who finished the game scoreless, but specializes in perimeter defense. Bruce Pearl described the substitution as a chance to bolster the defense, especially since Pettiford had four fouls at the time.

“With about four minutes to go, we gave him a rotation. The thought was to put him back in, but we needed some stops. And we did get three or four stops late without him,” Pearl said on Friday.

Pearl also said he wanted a bigger lineup on the floor and Jones is three inches taller than Pettiford at 6-foot-4.

Despite taking him off the floor late in the game, Pearl praised Pettiford’s performance and what he has already brought to team as a freshman.

“Tahaad has obviously shown what he’s capable of doing. Tahaad will continue to play more and more point guard,” Pearl said. “I brought him in as an undersized, scoring 2-man. He’s really good with the ball as well.”

Pearl was asked if Pettiford could break into the starting lineup given his offensive production. He said he didn’t want to mess with the current starting lineup, one that he said has “analytically been the best five in the country.” Despite that, Pearl said Pettiford “could play starter’s minutes, and he certainly could be in at the end of games.”

Through eight games, Pettiford is averaging 10.9 points in 19.6 minutes per game and has a true shooting percentage of 58.6%. He also has the second-highest usage on the team, according to KenPom.

With Pearl planning to use Pettiford primarily as a point guard, there’s currently a three-man rotation at that position with Jones, Pettiford and JP Pegues. Pegues started the season as a starter alongside Jones in the backcourt, but later fell in the rotation, now only averaging 14.3 minutes per game.

As Pettiford continues produce as a freshman, it’s worth watching how is role could keep evolving and changing. It doesn’t seem like that will include cracking the starting lineup (for now), but he’s becoming arguably Auburn’s best perimeter scorer.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m