Auburn’s Tahaad Pettiford Pulls Out of NBA Draft, Rejoins Tigers After Final Four Run

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Tahaad Pettiford is planning to return to Auburn after testing the 2025 NBA draft waters, he told ESPN’s Jonathan Givony.

He also confirmed the news on Instagram:

The freshman guard averaged 11.6 points and 3.0 assists in 2024-25. Givony said he’ll “enter his sophomore season as a projected first-round pick in the 2026 draft.”

Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman had Pettiford as the No. 29 overall pick in his last mock draft, pointing to how much his stock was rising from the NBA Draft Combine.

“Tahaad Pettiford had a needle-moving NBA combine, measuring a 6’5.5″ wingspan, jumping 42 inches and lighting up Wednesday’s scrimmage with 23 points and eight assists,” Wasserman wrote. “While his shot fell off on Thursday, his talent still popped relative to the other nine players on the floor. The ability to spots, shoot and leverage his elusiveness into playmaking made Pettiford look like a change-of-pace offensive bench spark at the least.”

Pettiford told Givony that meeting personally with NBA talent evaluators was very beneficial from the standpoint of learning their assessments of his game.

“I plan on putting all the tools that teams told me to work on together and get better overall,” he said. “Going back to Auburn and trying to win another championship, do what we did this year.”

Pettiford’s return is a massive boost for Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl, who will run out an almost entirely different roster in 2025-26. Six of his seven highest scorers were seniors, including SEC Player of the Year Johni Broome. Of those seniors, five were out of eligibility. The sixth, Chad-Baker Mazara, transferred. Addarin Scott, Jahki Howard exited through the transfer portal as well.

There will be nine new players on the squad. Even if the talent is there, returning to the Final Four will be a challenge with that kind of turnover.

Pettiford at least gives Pearl some continuity and will be a steady hand facilitating the offense.