Good year! As we say goodbye to 2025 and welcome 2026, Fantasy Basketball Managers Make New Year’s Resolutions. Unfortunately, you can’t go back and sign Nikola Jokić (although Nuggets big man out at least a month with knee injury). But you can plan to be the best roster regulator this year to try to win a championship. We’ve learned a lot in the first three months of High Score on Yahoo.
Let’s end the year with the perfect December lineup:
Here’s a look at the top six High Score scorers for the month of December.
Learn more about the top performers
Luka Doncic, goalkeeper: The Lakers superstar has been one of the best case studies so far in High Score – a player who almost always hits a ceiling from week to week despite missing games and eliminations. For example, Dončić missed three games in December and posted low scores of 47 points and 21 points (due to injury) in some spots. But he also dropped 99 fantasy points on Dec. 18 against the Jazz, one of the highest scores of the entire season. December was not the best month for Dončić; he averaged 31 points, 7.9 assists and 7.2 rebounds while shooting 44.1% from the floor and 28.9% from distance. We would like to see a more consistent performance from Luka to start 2026.
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Cade Cunningham, guard: Cunningham is in the NBA MVP conversation with the Pistons expected to enter 2026 atop the Eastern Conference. In the new year, Cunningham should prove to be a more aggressive and efficient scorer; he shot 48.7% from the floor in December, but averaged just 17.2 attempts per game.
Scoring volume is holding Cunningham back from his true potential, which we’ve seen with massive fantasy outings this season. But his assist and steal totals help him stay atop the fantasy scoreboard most weeks. He dished out a season-high 17 assists on Dec. 26 against Utah to help him reach 80 fantasy points in High Score.
Nikola Jokić, frontcourt: It’s upsetting that we enter 2026 without Jokić on the pitch. To begin the last week of 2025, Jokić suffered a hyperextended left knee and is expected to be out for at least four weeks. At least the Nuggets giant left his managers a parting gift for 2025 in the form of a record 108 fantasy points in a Christmas Day victory over the Timberwolves. Jokić led Minnesota with 56 points, 16 rebounds, 15 assists and two steals. It was the eighth game this season. Joker had over 80 fantasy points.
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It seemed like at a minimum, managers with Jokić on their roster would be a fantasy playoff favorite. It is not possible to replace it in the short term; you can only hope that he comes back healthy and picks up where he left off.
Kawhi Leonard, frontcourt: After missing the start of the season and almost the entire month of November, Leonard is back (and more). He’s playing every night, something we’ve rarely seen in his injury-riddled career. His December numbers look MVP-worthy: 29.8 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.1 actions per game on 49/36/96 shooting over 12 games. Leonard dropped a career-high 55 points with 11 rebounds and eight plays in a win over the Pistons on Dec. 28 to reach 94 fantasy points for this week. If Leonard can keep this up, he looks like one of the draft stealers.
Alperen Şengün, frontcourt: Like Jokić, the Rockets great will start 2026 on the shelf while dealing with a calf injury that caused him to miss two games. But he enters Wednesday ranked ninth in fantasy points per game average in High Score at 53.2 on the season. Şengün has been somewhat of a Jokić-lite to begin his fifth NBA season, producing in several categories (rebounds, assists, actions). The problem has been scoring volume, something you don’t always see, given Kevin Durant’s presence in Houston. Şengün’s best score in December 88 just came on December 1st against the Jazz (of course, it was against Utah). Elite stock market hedging will always raise the Şengün floor; he held an average of 3.5 shares in December.
Scottie Barnes, utility: The Raptors swingman sneaked onto this list thanks to a historic bounce-back performance to close out last week. He helped Toronto force overtime and finally earned a win against the Dubs on Sunday, scoring 23 points with a career-high 25 rebounds and 10 assists for his first triple-double of the season. Barnes also added a pair of assists and three action plays to help him reach 80 fantasy points and knock Hawks F Jalen Johnson off this list. Barnes has a high ceiling given his class coverage, but the lack of scoring and rebounds only giving you 1 FPT hurts his floor.
