K.D. Johnson is unabashedly himself at all times.

He’s a maniac on the hardwood — an absolute madman who can spark things on either end of the court and do it all with a delirious grin and meme-worthy facial expressions. He’s all gas, no brakes, but even Johnson will admit there’s something that was holding him back during his first season at Auburn.

His weight.

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“That was just never my weight class, you know?” Johnson said. “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.”

Johnson was listed at 204 pounds last season, but he has slimmed down considerably this offseason. Auburn has him listed at 185 pounds — down 19 pounds from last year — on its official roster as the team gears up for the 2022-23 season, which is now less than four weeks away. Johnson’s current weight is more in line with what he played at as a freshman at Georgia in 2020-21, when the Bulldogs had him listed at 190 pounds.

Now, he’s even below that threshold — and it has Johnson “feeling myself all the way” heading into his junior year.

Auburn’s mercurial two-guard said he put on some weight during the pandemic, and it ultimately impacted how he played last season, even as he was the Tigers’ second-leading scorer at 12.3 points per game while starting 31 of the team’s 34 games. Despite his overall success, it was at times feast or famine for Johnson, who shot just 29 percent from 3-point range for the season and endured some uneven performances throughout the season — most notably in the postseason, when he shot 7-of-32 (21.9 percent) overall and 3-of-18 (16.7 percent) from beyond the arc while committing eight turnovers in Auburn’s three SEC and NCAA Tournament games.

“Fatigue, I was getting a little winded early,” Johnson said. “Inconsistency. So, now y’all can see more consistent playing and me going forward the whole time.”

Johnson hopes his commitment to getting back to his optimal playing weight pays dividends this season, as he looks to build off his promising first year in Bruce Pearl’s system and help Auburn defend its regular-season SEC crown. The 6-foot guard is already feeling a difference on the practice court — and it showed during Auburn’s pro day on Wednesday, when he shot 4-of-6 from the field, 2-of-3 from deep and 3-of-5 from the free-throw line during the scrimmage portion of practice. He finished with 13 points, four steals and an assist in 15 minutes of action.

Of course, that was just one scrimmage inside one preseason practice — albeit in front of scouts from 28 of the NBA’s 30 teams — but Pearl remarked before pro day that he has been pleased with Johnson’s more consistent effort in practice. Even teammates have noticed a different bounce in Johnson’s step this preseason.

“Well, K.D. always going to be K.D.,” guard Zep Jasper said. “I seen him dunking, do reverse dunks. You know? He always talked about losing weight. But you know, he looked like the best shape he’s ever been in his lifetime, and I give hats off to him because you know, he’s been playing lights out, great intensity, which he’s always going to give great intensity. But you know, I just love to play with K.D. Johnson because he just — he gets me hyped, and we get each other hyped on defense, and we just maniacs back there.”

It’ll just be a matter of how Pearl plans to utilize him this season, and whether that’s back in the starting lineup alongside Wendell Green Jr. (who was the team’s sixth man last year but is primed to take over the starting job at point guard) or off the bench as a jolt of energy and top scoring threat with the second unit, which would allow Jasper to play off ball in the starting lineup.

Although Johnson started 31 of 34 games last season, Pearl experimented with him off the bench while mixing up lineups during the team’s three games in Israel. Johnson did well in his two games off the bench, leading the team in plus/minus with a plus-nine in its finale against the Israeli senior national team and finishing with 13 points, five assists and three steals in the Tigers’ first game against the U-20 team. Though, he also had 15 points, four rebounds and three steals in his one start in Israel.

“Whatever (Pearl) puts me in, I’ll do it to the fullest I can,” Johnson said. “I trust him, he trusts me, and we can rock out how we do now.”

Whatever his role is this season, Johnson is not only more comfortable in Pearl’s system (“I know it like the back of my hand,” he says now), but he anticipates being more “explosive” on the floor, with more dunks — and even those reverses — scattered through his shot chart.

“You look at him right now, he’s lost some weight,” Pearl said. “He’s faster, he’s quicker. His practice habits continue to improve. He’s positioning himself to have a big year.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.