San Diego State’s basketball team already had the potential to be good – really good – next season.
On Wednesday, it got even better.
Just hours before the deadline to withdraw from the NBA draft and retain college eligibility, Miles Byrd announced he is returning to the Aztecs for the 2025-26 season despite being projected as a high second-round pick. He’ll be a redshirt junior.
“Unfinished business,” Byrd posted on social media Wednesday afternoon. “Back to work.”
That gives Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher six key rotation pieces from an NCAA Tournament team including 7-foot NBA prospect Magoon Gwath … plus 2024-25 preseason all-conference guard Reese Waters after sitting out out with a foot injury … plus three veteran transfers who fill specific needs … plus two highly touted incoming freshmen … plus a 7-foot shot swatter who redshirted.
Byrd was invited to the NBA combine earlier this month in Chicago and measured 6-4¾ in bare feet after being listed at 6-7 in college. But he acquitted himself well in the 5-on-5 scrimmages and was considered among those players who improved their draft stock.
He spent the past week working out for the Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Phoenix Suns and Charlotte Hornets, who own a combined eight picks between 26 and 36 in the two-round draft next month. He faced an 8:59 p.m. PDT deadline Wednesday to return to college or stay in the draft permanently and, just as he predicted, took his decision to the final day.
Byrd was hoping to be projected for the first round, when all rookie contracts are guaranteed, or that a team with a second-round pick would promise him a guaranteed, multiyear deal.
“He’s just waiting on feedback,” Dutcher told boosters at an athletic department event Tuesday night. “Someone is going to have to tell him that we’re going to take you with this pick. And if he doesn’t get that kind of guarantee, then my thought would be he would come back.
“They’ll decide what pick they’re going to make, and if they really want Miles, they’ll try to encourage him to stay in. … If they’re still undecided, they’ll tell him that. They’ll tell him there’s a chance we’ll take you but we’re not promising anything, and then he’ll have a choice to make.”
The alternative was being selected in the second round and offered a two-way contract allowing movement between the NBA club and its G League affiliate, which can pay up to $636,000 next season but is not guaranteed. The risk was getting waived and wallowing in the G League with sparse crowds, commercial travel between remote locales and a dog-eat-dog team culture for as little as $40,500.
A safer option, armed with NBA feedback, is continuing his development at a place he knows and trusts, moving closer to a college degree, playing in a regularly sold-out 12,414-seat area and receiving a six-figure NIL check that amounts to a guaranteed contract.
NBADraft.net projected Byrd to go No. 33 overall, the third pick of the second round, to Charlotte. Sports Illustrated’s mock draft had him at No. 38 to San Antonio, Yahoo at No. 39 to Houston, ESPN at No. 43 to Utah, Tankathon at No. 45 to Chicago.
The Ringer’s comprehensive draft prospectus ranked him No. 33 on its Big Board, noting that since 2007-08 he is one of only 13 college players with steal and block analytics above 4% but that he curiously shot better when guarded than wide open.
Wrote J. Kyle Mann in his assessment of the wiry 20-year-old: “All in all, Byrd is like a basketball version of an oddly flavored aperitif: Some will blanch at his odd game, assuming he’s a scorer but getting notes of a more defensive-leaning wing; others will appreciate the uniqueness and see what he could be with the right pairing.”
Byrd likely would have been worth more on the open market had he entered the transfer portal before provisionally declaring for the NBA draft. But he made it clear in March that if he didn’t turn pro, he would return to SDSU for his junior season.
“I want to prove myself that I’m an NBA guy this year, right now,” Byrd, who spent the past two months training in Glendale with other players from the Wasserman agency, told the Union-Tribune earlier this month. “At the same time, it’s in the back of my mind that it’s no rush. Obviously, I wouldn’t be opposed to coming back to San Diego State if I’m not hearing the feedback that I want to hear.
“I know I’d be coming back to a good situation.”
Besides being the second leading scorer (12.3 points) last season behind the departed Nick Boyd, Byrd was the only player to rank in the top eight of the Mountain West in both average steals (2.1) and blocks (1.1), a rare double. Perhaps even more important, he is the only scholarship player on the roster in his fourth year with the program – the kind of veteran leadership that has defined SDSU’s most successful teams.
And playing alongside the 6-6 Waters, a lethal scorer from the 3-point arc and midrange, should take some offensive pressure off Byrd, who became the focus of opposing defenses at midseason and watched his numbers plummet. It also should help to have a pass-first point guard in Louisiana Tech transfer Sean Newman Jr., who averaged 7.9 assists last season, third best in Division I.
“I think the sky’s the limit,” Byrd said earlier this month about SDSU’s potential next season. “We’ve all just played with each other for a season. There will definitely be a lot more chemistry, a lot more maturity. We were a few games and a few injuries from being a Final Four-type team last year, and that’s without any maturity or experience.
“I can only think, if you get us all out there together, what it will look like.”
Originally Published: May 28, 2025 at 2:23 PM PDT
