Get ready for a more explosive K.D. Johnson.

Bruce Pearl's beloved maniac of a shooting guard is nearly 20 pounds lighter than he was last year. And you thought he brought a lot of energy in his debut season.

SG K.D. Johnson and C Johni Broome (Zach Bland/Auburn Athletics)

K.D. Johnson is a stick of dynamite.

He’s loud. He doesn’t have a long fuse. He might blow up at any moment. He can be, statistically, boom or bust.

Johnson is an explosive basketball player in virtually every sense of the word. And, in his second season at Auburn, he plans on packing even more of a punch.

“You'll see a few more dunks and stuff like that,” Johnson said with a sly grin.

Johnson isn’t hiding it, either. Just two official practices into the fall session, Johnson has racked up more hang time and is impressing some of his partners in crime.

“Well, K.D. is always gonna be K.D.,” veteran guard Zep Jasper said. “But I’ve seen him dunking, doing reverse dunks. He always talked about losing weight. But you know, he looked like the best shape he's ever been in his lifetime. Hats off to him.”

That’s right: The stick of dynamite is leaner and meaner.

Last season, Johnson was listed at 6-foot and 204 pounds. This season, he’s 19 pounds lighter.

“That was just never my weight class, you know?” Johnson said of his size last season, which he attributed to the COVID year. “I never had played at that weight. So me, performing at that level, I was going in there, like, hoping that I could be good on that day.

“Now, I know I'm at my perfect weight. Every day, I feel confident in my game.”

A more confident K.D. Johnson? Look out.