James Harden is the early frontrunner in the race for MVP. Yet the journey towards chasing it began during the offseason. HoopsHabit recently caught up with his strength trainer Paul Fabritz, to get his thoughts on what has led to his phenomenal season.

James Harden might stand tall and talented every night for the Houston Rockets, but even he needs somebody to help him reach peak performance, which is exactly where Paul Fabritz comes in.

The 27-year-old is one of the top trainers in the country, and is the founder of PJF Performance, where he currently serves as the primary enhancement specialist and guru to numerous NBA players — ranging from Tyus Jones and Shabazz Napier to Buddy Hield and Marquese Chriss.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Fabritz about how he got started, his training program, and the man known as The Beard.

Gavriel Wilkins: Tell us a little bit about how you got into the position where you currently sit in as of now.

Paul Fabritz: So, I grew up a basketball player. In high school, I started getting a ton of injuries. My junior year, I sat out the whole year. My senior year, I sat out a lot of the year. Played with a broken hand. Going into my junior year, I had a lot of offers. And after my senior year, all of those offers were gone. I was a 5’11” point guard without athleticism, who got injured every year. So as a result, all of the college coaches started to look the other way.

As a result, I kind of had to pivot a little bit, and went to community college. Yet, continued to sustain more injuries. Really never got to play a college game. And in my junior year of college…I made a huge transformation. I started actually learning how to train the right way, and I took my vertical into the mid-40s. And came back right before my senior season, doing full windmill dunks.

I was strong, I was athletic, and healthy finally…and it was either go back and play, where I was walking on at Northern Arizona, or take this program that I had developed and run with it and create a business to transform thousands of lives.

So, I went with that option and decided that I can take this program, and really help a lot of other basketball players get to the position that they want to be in, instead of just helping myself…I moved to Phoenix, and started training kids in the community. From youth basketball to high school players, for free. And they were getting great results. Word started spreading around Arizona, and eventually I started charging.

I was training people out of parks, and at times would sneak into apartment gyms just to train clients. It was at that point, that I began to start making money, and opened up a facility out in Tempe, Arizona. Then, I started posting skill videos across Instagram…where all of a sudden my stuff went viral, and began to gain thousands of followers a day.

It was at the point where NBA players started finding me….and from that point, everything just started to roll. More and more guys started coming in, and by the time I was about to graduate from college, I pretty much had a full-on training business going.

Everything began to fall in place rather quickly. Then, I linked up with Rob Pelinka, who was an agent at the time, and now serves as the general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers. He had heard about my program, and called all of his clients to work with me, as one of the guys who followed up on it was James Harden.

I ended up getting a trial session with him, and he loved it. Asked me what my summer schedule was like, and he has been with me ever since. Since then, even more has come along….and it all kind of started from just being extremely passionate about basketball, not getting the results that I wanted in my career, and figuring out a plan to change that. As my experiences helped to provide me with some wisdom, to luckily provide and benefit other players.

Wilkins: There are so many individual skill trainers nowadays, who seek to train players across multiple levels within the game of basketball. What makes your program at PJF Performance different from the rest across the country?

Fabritz: We do a lot of strength and conditioning work, and try to help those we train to get their body right, and become more athletic, in addition to providing them with skills consulting, as I have several trainers that work under me to ensure that our guys are performing at the highest level.

However, when an athlete comes in, I’m finding out every single thing there is to know about their body. Way more than they can ever find out on their own, or way more than what their team doctors know. As soon as we get them in, we do force plate testing, to find out how they put force into the ground…We do motion tracking, so we know everything about their movement, from joint angles to lateral slides when they’re jumping and sprinting.

We do electromyography, where we hook up machines to the player’s body, to discern whether or not a given player’s muscles are firing the right way…and yet everybody still has a limiting factor, which is something that a lot of people do not understand, because they see a freak athlete and assume that they have fully peaked out. But everybody has a limiting factor, and that is what we have found out through working with and closely analyzing our athletes.

Some players have muscles that are underactive, and if we can find a way to activate it, then we can help them to either jump higher or move better. Everybody produces force differently, and we can train based upon their limiting factor, to help them increase their overall athleticism.

So, I would say that we apply a lot of science to our assessments, which gives us the direction and allows us to collect information about players before we even began start working in the gym.

Wilkins: How do you find a way to get your clients to buy in and commit to putting in the work to get better?

Fabritz: Honestly, I just think that we naturally attract the right type of clients. Because we’re not going after people. A lot of times when you approach somebody, and are begging them to get in the gym, they don’t really want to be in the gym. They’re just either seeking to maintain or rest.

The clients that we’re getting are coming to us…which I think gives us the upper hand, because if you are coming to us and seeking out our help, then we know that you are coming in to make a transformation during the offseason.

I think that they buy into the process because of the assessment, and because we give them more details than they have ever heard before about their own body. So, they know that the knowledge is there. And another thing that I also think plays a role, is the fact that I’m still athletic myself.

We can finish up a day of training, and I’ll just go and play in pickup games with them. Which I believe helps me to gain their respect. Because I am right there with them, and I actually practice what I preach.

Wilkins: Now, let’s step into the lab. Last season, Harden showed why he is regarded as one of the game’s finest guards, by becoming the first player in league history to score over 2,000 points with 900 assists and 600 rebounds.

Which specific areas of his game was he seeking to improve upon this past summer, prior to the start of training camp in Houston?

Fabritz: Well, he started off the offseason in isolation. And basically just locked himself in the gym. Didn’t have any type of distractions. Didn’t even want to have a social life….he did whatever it took to clear his mind.

And I think that is where everything began to come into fruition for him, because he was locked in. In terms of what he was seeking to improve upon, he was more focused on improving his overall strength and conditioning, where he lost quite a bit of body fat. On the skill side, he just came back into the gym shooting the ball so well. He found a way to improve his shooting within isolation sets.

He comes in with these new moves every year. Like, a few years ago, it was a spin stepback that he got to every play. Last year, it was a side step. He adds a new layer to his game every single year, that makes him more and more impossible to guard….and practiced a lot working primarily off of ball screens, to get more comfortable playing within Mike D’Antoni‘s system in Houston.

Wilkins: As Harden’s personal strength and conditioning coach, what were your goals in regards to helping him get primed and ready to go for the 2017-18 regular season?

Fabritz: For me, it was just making sure that his conditioning was at a high level this season. Like, he is playing 40-plus minutes a night, and his usage rate is so high. He has the ball in his hands at all times, and while Chris Paul helps him out a little bit with that, we did a lot of injury prevention stuff due to the way in which he typically plays. Because he is going into the lane quite a bit, and is getting fouled just about on every single play, as a result of looking to draw contact.

So, you have to really have a strong and robust body, to be able to consistently take that and stay healthy. We did a lot of stability and balance drills, to help him gain a better level of mobility and flexibility, which I think helps separate him from the rest of the competition because his range of stability is what allows him to be so good off his step-backs and Euro-steps, and finish plays even with the contact.

Wilkins: Which is probably why he is so durable. Because he rarely misses regular season contests.

Fabritz: Yeah…it’s really just him and LeBron, who are consistently going out and doing that.

Wilkins: What was a typical day like for you and The Beard this past offseason?

Fabritz: He traveled around quite a bit. When he was in Los Angeles, he would work with me. On a typical day, he would usually come in to either train with us either in Anaheim, or I would just head into Los Angeles to meet with him depending on the given day. But he would come into get his strength and conditioning. We tried to keep it real efficient, and cut everything off at an hour.

Then, he would get on the court directly after that and work with his skills trainer Irv Roland, who was going everywhere with him, which he also would keep relatively efficient. That would be for about an hour, and then he did something that he does not always do a lot of in the offseason…he played a lot of pickup.

We would go and play pickup with a lot of NBA guys. There were even a few times in which he and Chris Paul were working out together. So, I’ve been at workouts where they were working out with one another, and pushing each other through strength side, followed by on-court skill work and partake summer games at UCLA to establish a level of chemistry with one another.

So, it’s a full day. You’re getting two hours of training, two hours of pickup games. And then afterwards, it’s straight recovery where he is getting messages and stretched out for another hour, then meeting with his chef, to get the right nutrients in his body. It’s a full-time job.

And people wonder what NBA players are doing when they’re not playing…they still have a nine-to-five.

Wilkins: How quickly did you realize that Harden was well on his way towards putting together another career-year?

Fabritz: I would go back as far as last year. I knew that he was on his way, when I saw his physique at the end of the summer. His physique was better than I have ever seen it…probably going as far back to his time at Arizona State, and early part of his career with the Oklahoma City Thunder, when he had his kid-like body.

His body fat was real low. He was strong, agile and quick. He was shooting the ball well in workouts, and that’s when I realized that he is going to have a really good year. And then this year, he just had that same mentality, where he was locked in every single day of offseason…becoming an even better leader. Like, when he was working out with Chris Paul, they were both pushing and helping one another.

Every offseason, I’ve noticed that he has more leadership qualities, which shows me that he is going to have another great season, and most importantly that the Rockets are going to have an even better season.

Wilkins: But you don’t just train Harden. You also work with the likes of countless other NBA players, such as Buddy Hield and Marquese Chriss. What it is that makes his game stand out from the rest of your elite-level clientele?

Fabritz: His all-around game on offense. He’s almost like a created player on 2K, because he is almost perfect in every area. He can pass, handle, shoot and create just about as great as anybody in the league. He knows how to draw fouls. It’s like every aspect of his game is perfect, and I would argue that he is arguably the most well-rounded offensive player in the NBA.

And while there is this myth about his inability to play defense, he can. He is actually a really good defender. His usage rate is just so high compared to previous years, to the point where he simply does not have the energy to fully play it every single possession. Now, with the arrival of CP3, I think that you will start to see more from him on that end. Because he finally has someone to help spot him to a degree on offense, and help him to conserve some more energy for that end of the floor.

But I would say that it is his passion for the game, that separates him the most. Because that’s what drives him to work, and add a layer to his game every offseason…in addition to his ability to be near the top of every single offensive category year after year.

Wilkins: How much interaction do you have with the Rockets front office throughout the process? And if so, how does that happen?

Fabritz: I have a little bit of interaction with them. However, they place a lot of trust in James. Like normally, the teams of the younger players that we train are very involved in the process. Because a lot of times, some players might not have any idea in regards to what it takes to put together a productive offseason.

Those are the teams that I typically talk with every single week, just to let them know what we are doing, and that they showed up to workouts. The Rockets know that James is so tuned into the grind, that they don’t even need to check up on him everyday. The communication is more so between him and their staff, to let them know about what we are doing, and that he is doing well.

He works a lot with them too. There are times throughout the offseason, where he will go back in the summer to work out with the staff in Houston or just have the staff of coaches here with him.

So, it is a fluid process, whether he is working out with myself or Irv Roland, because he has fully earned their trust to the point where they don’t need to be concerned about him all the time.

Wilkins: Prior to the start of the season, many experts were quick to state that they thought Harden would not produce the type of numbers he did last year alongside Chris Paul. Yet, he has done just that, all the while leading the Rockets to the best record in basketball.

Based upon what you’ve seen from him thus far, what would you say is the one major adjustment that he has made to his game this season compared to last?

Fabritz: He meshes very well with Chris Paul. I could see that in the workouts, and pickup games that they played this past offseason. And while they have different personalities, they help balance out one another. I was never worried that CP3 was gonna take away anything from James, like a lot of other experts thought, and I really think that’s the biggest adjustment he had to make.

Their team only got better, and added pieces that they needed, but I would say that is the No. 1 thing right there….just knowing that him and Paul are meshing well, because it gives the Rockets another threat who can make shots. Plus, James can still play as the primary ball-handler, where he can drive and kick it out to him…which leads to potential opportunities at the rim, blow-bys, and lobs to Clint Capela, to the point where teams can no longer just focus in on him anymore.

When you make the team more well-rounded, and more balanced, I just think that only helps to make the superstar that much better. Because now they can’t lock in on you.

Wilkins: With that said, do you believe that this is the year that Harden finally wins his first MVP?

Fabritz: Man, I hope so. In my opinion, and I am super biased, but he deserves two of them. This past year, I really thought that he deserved it. The numbers that he put up, combined with leading the Rockets to such a great record…I really felt like he deserved it.

As of right now, LeBron is probably his No. 1 challenger for it in my opinion. To me, wins matter. I don’t know exactly where the Rockets finished in the preseason power rankings…but if they finish with the best record in the league, and he continues put up the stats that he has, then I do not see how you can go in any other direction with the MVP award.