AUBURN — A traditional point guard has one true responsibility: Making the lives of his teammates easier.

That's not necessarily done through playmaking nowadays, as a number of lead guards have proven to be excellent scorers themselves. One archetype isn't necessarily better than the other — look at Jared Harper, who posted 15.3 points per game en route to the Final Four with Auburn basketball in 2019.

But there's no doubting how an old-school PG could help a talented teammate get buckets.

Auburn's production out of its PGs last season left some to be desired. The tandem of Aden Holloway and Tre Donaldson wasn't bad in any sense — the duo teamed up to average 17.3 points and 6.7 assists to help the Tigers open the campaign with a 16-2 record — but it did have faults. Holloway and Donaldson combined to shoot 37.8% from the field in Auburn's final eight games in 2023-24.

With both PGs transferring away this offseason, the Tigers went out and reshaped the position. Furman transfer JP Pegues will assume most of the responsibility there now after spending the first three seasons of his career with the Paladins, with whom he averaged 18.4 points and 4.8 assists last season.

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A veteran with nearly 100 games played, including two contests in March Madness, Pegues hasn't been particularly focused on making himself pop to the Auburn staff through summer workouts.

"I think he’s taken a really interesting approach to his arrival," Tigers coach Bruce Pearl said of Pegues earlier this month at an AMBUSH event in Lake Martin. "Rather than worrying about making himself look good, he’s been more worried about making sure everybody gets involved and learning the system, so on and so forth."

Pegues posted an assist percentage of 25.9% last season, per College Basketball Analytics. That was tied for No. 166 nationally amongst the 2,935 Division I players who played enough (312 minutes) to qualify for the stat. His assist-to-turnover ratio finished at 2.16, which was tied for 208th in the country. It ranked No. 87 out of 240 players who were on the court for at least 900 minutes.

Simply put: Pegues, through his experience and poised demeanor, should be a calming presence for Auburn.

That'd be huge for the Tigers, who have no shortage of scoring talent. Star big man Johni Broome is a returning All-American, sharpshooting two guard Denver Jones can fill it up from deep and Chad Baker-Mazara, entering his second season on the Plains, can heat up at a moment's notice.

And that's without mentioning pieces such as Chaney Johnson, a former Alabama-Huntsville standout, and Tahaad Pettiford, a five-star freshman rated by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 29 player in the Class of 2024. Then there's transfer wing Miles Kelly, who led Georgia Tech in scoring for the last two seasons.

Pegues doesn't need to score for Auburn to be successful, though there will probably be times where he hits a groove and puts up points. In the big picture, his main job will be setting the table for others and running the offense. As summer workouts roll on, it seems as if he's capable of that.

“JP has been quietly consistent," Pearl said. "... He doesn’t show up a lot, he doesn’t make you go ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ very often. All he does is win. His teams have won, and he’s been incredibly patient, sort of facilitating and letting other guys do some things."

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn basketball: Transfer JP Pegues 'quietly consistent' so far