Cade Cunningham posted his best fantasy game of the season against the Cavs in Week 16.
It’s that manic time of year when continuity is a luxury. Rosters are revamped with some teams in need of a late-season push and others planning for their future.
Finding stability is crucial for NBA Fantasy Salary Game players, wondering who they can rely on despite the fast-breaking nature of the past few weeks.
Here are all the need-to-knows midway through Week 16:
Story So Far
The league’s longest winning streak doesn’t belong to any top seed. The team in question isn’t even in the playoff picture. It’s the 13th-place Portland Trail Blazers (22-29) – victors of five in a row – who lay claim to it.
Portland has secured nine of its last 10 despite possessing just 13 wins all season beforehand. That remarkable run has been underlined by success against the Eastern Conference, including six triumphs against would-be playoff squads should the postseason begin right now.
A youth movement has paved the way with Deni Avdija, Anfernee Simons and Scoot Henderson averaging 34.1, 31.4 and 29.1 fantasy points per game (FPPG), respectively, while all playing at least nine of those 10 contests. Each of those marks exceeds their averages on the campaign, indicating the best basketball they’ve played thus far in 2024-2025.
The Trail Blazers don’t feature any players with 1500-plus total fantasy points (TFP), but instead carry seven with 1000 or more, headlined by Avdija’s 1438.7 and Simons’ 1394.5. Toumani Camara has been an x-factor with 1209.9 TFP on a salary of $7.7M – qualifying as the 32nd-most valuable player in all of fantasy.
Top Performances
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made his latest statement Wednesday in a line of many, putting up 75.1 fantasy points in a 140-109 victory for the Oklahoma City Thunder (40-9) over the Phoenix Suns (25-25). The seventh-year guard racked up 50 points, eight rebounds and five assists to get there, and having never dropped 50 until Jan. 22 has now done so three times in seven games. He’s averaging 57.7 FPPG during that scorching stretch – comfortably above his season average of 54.4 – and now counts 15 showings with 60-plus fantasy points.
The second and final member of ‘Club 70’ is Cade Cunningham, courtesy of his 70.9 for the Detroit Pistons (25-26) in their 118-115 buzzer-beater loss Wednesday to the Cleveland Cavaliers (41-10). That season high for the fourth-year guard featured 38 points, seven rebounds and nine assists while representing a fifth consecutive contest with 50 or more fantasy points. He’s reached 50 on 20 different occasions, and with seven of them coming in his past eight outings, has catapulted into sixth among all players in TFP.
Something was in the air last night, as the third-highest-scoring outing came from Nikola Jokić’s 67.6 versus the New Orleans Pelicans (12-39) in a 144-119 triumph for the Denver Nuggets (32-19). Now on the cusp of being the first this season to reach 3000 TFP, the 10th-year center fell two rebounds shy of a 24th triple-double – more than double the next-closest (10) – with his 38 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists. Jokić has now exceeded his 64.9 FPPG season average in seven of 10 contests since Jan. 19.
Transaction Tips
Investing short-term in the Houston Rockets (32-18) should open the fantasy point floodgates for your squad. They’re the only team in the NBA with three games in the next four days, facing off with the Minnesota Timberwolves (28-23) tonight, Dallas Mavericks (26-25) on Saturday and Toronto Raptors (16-35) on Sunday.
Amen Thompson and Dillon Brooks are two potential acquisitions that should catch your eye. For $10.3M, the former has been terrific with 35-plus fantasy points in eight of his last nine games, while the latter – at an $8.9M price tag – has pitched in a respectable 22 or more in five of the past seven.
