LaMelo Ball is assembling the finest season of his career to date.
The league may not have offered Thanksgiving entertainment to round out the plates of NBA Fantasy Salary Game players, but after the first three gamedays of the week, there’s plenty of fodder for discussion.
Here are all the need-to-knows midway through Week 6:
Story So Far
Another beast of the east has been slayed, and it was the same hands wielding the sword.
The reputation of “giant killer” is starting to grow for the Atlanta Hawks (8-11), who struck down the Cleveland Cavaliers (17-2) by a 135-124 score Wednesday night. In dealing the hosts their first loss of the season at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Atlanta became the only squad in the NBA to upend the top two seeds in the Eastern Conference, having also knocked off the Boston Celtics (15-3) on the road Nov. 12.
Double-digit deficits were an obstacle on both occasions — the Celtics held a 15-point advantage in the third quarter, while the Cavaliers led by as much as 19 in the first. But the Hawks, despite currently holding a play-in berth by a 1/2-game margin, secured each upset regardless.
Trae Young wasn’t available for the previous stunner. This time around, he made himself known, dishing out a career-high 22 assists – the highest single-game total in the league this season – along with 20 points en route to his seventh 50-plus fantasy point performance in 2024-25. He’s hit his stride as a distributor, notching 13 or more assists in four of his last five games, and that’s helped him go on a tear of 159.9 total fantasy points across his last three alone.
Support for the three-time All-Star continues to arrive two-fold from Jalen Johnson and Dyson Daniels. The former has reached 40 fantasy points in six of the Hawks’ last eight – outproducing Young some nights – whereas the latter has racked up at least 30 in nine of 10 games.
The Surprise
This week’s start featured a true shock – the news NBA fans were expecting in December, delivered a month early, and without warning.
Making his return to the TD Garden parquet, Celtics forward/center Kristaps Porziņģis was ruled available for Monday’s contest against the Los Angeles Clippers (12-8) after missing the first 17 games of the season while recovering from foot surgery. Porziņģis originally had a timetable of five to six months following a June 27 operation for an injury suffered in Game 2 of the 2024 NBA Finals, but said earlier this week that an easy rehab process allowed for an early return.
Boston went on to dismantle Los Angeles, 126-94, for its largest margin of victory this campaign, snapping what had been a five-game winning streak for the visitors. With 34.2 fantasy points on the outing – including 16 points, six rebounds and two blocks – Porziņģis offered a taste of what he provided for 2023-24 fantasy managers.
If you can look past the risks that come with his checkered injury history, $14M isn’t a bad price for a three-level scorer who puts up crooked numbers in the blocking and rebounding categories. That unique versatility for a 7-foot-2 big man makes it so that even when he’s not shooting lights-out, you can still do damage in your league thanks to what his excellent rim protection yields.
Transaction Tips
Halfway through his first decade in the NBA, LaMelo Ball is assembling the finest season of his career to date, and it’s time for the fantasy world to act accordingly.
If you’re looking to trade one of your higher-end, underperforming stars, Ball constitutes a trusty replacement. The Charlotte Hornets (6-12) guard recently pitched in his top two performances all campaign, totaling 70.0 fantasy points against the Milwaukee Bucks (9-9) on Saturday and 64.3 against the Orlando Magic (13-7) on Monday. He ranks ninth in total fantasy points (TFP), and during his last 11 games, has scored 45 or more nine times.
Ball is on track to smash his points-per-game personal best, currently averaging 31.0 after setting a new high of 23.9 last season. Granted, it’s still early, with most teams now approaching the 20-game checkpoint, so don’t wait long to acquire him if you’re worried about his numbers dropping off in the latter half of the regular season.
James Harden is another big name generating fantasy buzz – an alternative target if you’re in search of a more seasoned star. He’s submitted four 50-plus fantasy point showings in his last seven games, and is fresh off a season-high 63.3 against the Washington Wizards (2-15) on Wednesday night.
The 16th-year guard isn’t the player he once was, but his ability to stay healthy at 35 years old and put up respectable numbers as a scorer-facilitator has made him one of the NBA’s more reliable fantasy options. Harden is third in TFP with 916.1, and costs just $14.7M – less than 17 other players in the top 30 of that category.
Note that Harden’s more recent contributions have come without Kawhi Leonard and Norman Powell, so adding him to your roster sooner rather than later would be ideal.
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