There’s a bit of a misnomer, Bruce Pearl thinks.

Look at incoming freshman Tahaad Pettiford’s recruiting profile. 247Sports puts five stars next to his name as one of the best players in the 2024 high school class. He is rated as the composite top point guard in his class and a top 25 overall player.

Rated as the best point guard, sure. But that’s not exactly how Pearl plans to use Pettiford.

“Tahaad’s not a point guard,” Pearl said Thursday. “He’s got the size of a point guard, but everyone assumed Tahaad was going to come in and be our point guard. He’s not.”

Pettiford has been committed to Auburn since February 2023. He signed in November during the early signing period. He was named a McDonald’s All-American this year. During his final year at Hudson Catholic in Jersey City, New Jersey, Pettiford scored just over 19 points per game. He scored 30 or more points four times and at least 40 points twice.

And that’s why Pearl views him differently than a point guard.

“Tahaad is a scorer,” Pearl said. “He is an incredible athlete. He can make plays on both ends of the floor. He’s going to be one of the fastest, quickest, most explosive little guards I’ve ever had. But he’s not a true point guard. Can he play some? He might.”

Early on in Pettiford’s career, Pearl said he plans to use Pettiford in more of an off-ball role. That would more likely slot him in as a shooting guard and in turn, behind starter Denver Jones for his freshman year.

“I think I’m going to try to play him off the ball and let him do what he do: get buckets,” Pearl said. “Get buckets. Which may help you understand why the roster has moved a little bit in the position it’s moved now.”

It’s a role that may be similar to that of K.D. Johnson, the high-energy, quick-hit scoring guard behind Jones on the depth chart.

And that’s likely what Pearl means by understanding why the roster has “moved.”

Johnson entered the transfer portal on Tuesday ending a three-year run at Auburn where he became a fan-favorite guard. Johnson’s playing time declined during his time at Auburn from a starter in the 2021-22 season into a bench role over his second two years.

Pearl said part of Johnson’s decision to leave came from a post-season meeting with Pearl where it was clear that if Johnson wanted more playing time in his final year of college eligibility, it wasn’t going to happen at Auburn.

“In other words, coming off the bench, not quite being able to play as freely as he would’ve liked to play,” Pearl said. “There’s only so many minutes, only so much opportunity. We just talked about the fact that: Would the joy of the game be more if perhaps he was someplace else and had more of an opportunity to do more of what KD does. Our discussion was really, really good.”

Pettiford would likely take some of that playing time as an off-ball guard. And the idea with Pettiford is to eventually build him into a starter. But Pettiford will play as a freshman. He’s too talented not to.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]