NBA Fantasy – Salary Cap Edition: Week 12 Insider Preview

There are numerous strategies that can be implemented to prepare NBA Fantasy Salary Game players for peak performance leading up to the 2025 NBA All-Star Break in February. With teams experiencing varying levels of success, there is a wealth of valuable insights to be gained within fantasy communities.

Here’s what you need to know for Week 12:

Games to Watch

Boston Celtics (26-10) vs. Denver Nuggets (20-14), Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET

The two previous NBA champions will square off for the first time this campaign, and with both clamoring for on-court consistency, this could prove to be a crucial litmus test. The Celtics are a rocky 5-5 in their last 10 games but regained some ground with four wins in five before losing to the Thunder. Over in the Western Conference, the Nuggets are only marginally better at 6-4 in the same span, having claimed four of their previous five matchups.

Jayson Tatum

still spearheads the fight for Boston with 1654.0 total fantasy points (TFP) and 42.5 fantasy points per game (FPPG) – good for sixth and seventh in the league, respectively.

Derrick White

and

Jaylen Brown

have been neck-and-neck behind him, pitching in over 1100 TFP apiece, but the latter is typically a better bet with a comparatively higher 40.4 FPPG. 

The 2000 TFP ceiling was smashed by

Nikola Jokić

last week as he looks comfortably in contention for a fourth Kia NBA MVP award since 2020-2021.

Russell Westbrook

and

Jamal Murray

have stepped up in creating scoring opportunities for the 10th-year center, and that’s helped push Jokić toward three games of 80-plus fantasy points in his previous four outings after totaling three all season beforehand.

Oklahoma City Thunder (30-5) vs. Cleveland Cavaliers (31-4), Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET

It’s arrived at last. The best of the best going head-to-head for ultimate midseason bragging rights. And the timing is poetic, as Oklahoma City’s remarkable winning streak has hit 15 – the very number at which Cleveland’s undefeated start ended. 

The Cavaliers have rather quietly strung together 10 victories in a row despite the Thunder commanding recent headlines. Extremely well-balanced scoring has been at the heart of what’s become a 5.5-game lead over the Celtics for first place in the Eastern Conference, with

Donovan Mitchell

,

Evan Mobley

,

Darius Garland

, and

Jarrett Allen

all averaging more than 30 FPPG. Better yet, they rank 22nd, 27th, 29th and 35th in the league for TFP, respectively.

Nothing has changed for the Thunder moving into 2025. The squad remains as dominant as they were in December, most recently securing a 105-92 triumph over the Celtics on Sunday. Whether production has come from

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

,

Jalen Williams

or

Isaiah Hartenstein

, Oklahoma City just finds a way to win, and it has come this far without

Chet Holmgren

’s 37.7 FPPG – injured since Nov. 10 and projected to return in early February.

Transaction Tips

There have been few positive things to say about the Washington Wizards (6-27) as proprietors of the NBA’s worst record, but

Justin Champagnie

has emerged as a name to watch. The fourth-year guard/forward has scored 20 or more fantasy points in six of his last seven outings and has averaged 27.2 FPPG since Week 8. That qualifies as solid value for the $5.5M investment he requires.

Elsewhere,

Yves Missi

continues to make the most of a difficult situation. He’s a regular on the list of GameDay top value scorers – featuring a $5.7M price tag – and boasts four performances of 30-plus fantasy points in his last seven games. With the star-strapped New Orleans Pelicans (7-29) continuing to grant greater minutes to their bench, Missi has taken the team lead with 941.5 TFP over

CJ McCollum

, and it doesn’t look like he’ll relinquish it anytime soon.

Keon Johnson

poses a great deal in the wake of

Dorian Finney-Smith

and

Shake Milton

’s departures from the Brooklyn Nets (13-22). He’s turned in eight consecutive showings of 20 or more fantasy points, featuring three with 30-plus along the way. Inconsistency plagued his early-season efforts, but he appears to have found his footing, and that bodes well for just $4.7M.

Weekly Advice

The time is now to acquire players from the Phoenix Suns (15-18). They’re the only team in the league with five games during Week 12, and on top of that, four of those pending opponents possess losing records.

A pair of back-to-backs on Monday and Tuesday, as well as Saturday and Sunday, underline the stretch, consisting of the Philadelphia 76ers (14-19), Charlotte Hornets (7-27) twice, Atlanta Hawks (18-18) and Utah Jazz (9-25). All four carry bottom-half defensive ratings in the NBA.

Kevin Durant

is the obvious top choice to bring into the fold – seventh in the league with 44.2 FPPG and five games of 45-plus fantasy points in his last eight – as he’s been able to stay on the court with 10 consecutive games played. Though they haven’t been injury-free either,

Devin Booker

and

Bradley Beal

are available at the moment and are both useful fantasy pieces for a week like this.

Play NBA Fantasy – Salary Cap Edition