We’ve made it through Week 4 and are rapidly approaching the one-month mark of the 2025-26 NBA season.
Injuries have remained a topic of conversation, but they’ve led to some more opportunities for other players to navigate bigger roles. Some have led to fantasy basketball success, and others have not. Nonetheless, there is stuff to analyze. Let’s dig in.
**📺 → _Watch the NBA Coast 2 Coast Tuesday on NBC and Peacock:_ _The Grizzlies take on the Spurs at 8pm ET, followed by the Suns at the Trail Blazers at 11 pm ET. Both games are available_** [**_on Peacock_**](https://www.peacocktv.com/sports/nba?cid=2508sptnbanbspownedi26147&utm_campaign=2508sptnba&utm_source=nbcs_nbcspts_na&utm_medium=own_edi_acq_artl&utm_term=nbcuprtflo_nbcsportsappusers&utm_content=nbcsportsapparticle)**_. Check your local listings for the NBC game in your area._**
📈 STOCK UP
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### Daniss Jenkins — PG, Pistons
Everything is going right for the Pistons these days. Even with some recent injuries to key players, they’ve reeled off 10 straight wins and gotten production from players who many would least expect. Case in point: Daniss Jenkins. The second-year player out of St. John’s entered his sophomore season with all of seven career regular-season points and 23 minutes to his name. He doubled those scoring totals through the first four games of this season before abruptly posting averages of 21.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 7.8 assists, 2.0 steals and 2.5 three-pointers over the most recent four games. He’s started in place of the injured Cade Cunningham, but even when the superstar guard returns, it could be difficult to cut too much into Jenkins’ playing time.
### Nickeil Alexander-Walker — PG/SG/SF/PF, Hawks
Here’s another player whose stock is on the rise; although this one is a bit less surprising, given what the Hawks offered to get him in the door this recent offseason. Enjoying a career-best season in a newer role, Alexander-Walker has hit the 20-point mark in three of the past five games and continues to post career-highs in assists. More opportunities have presented themselves in Trae Young’s extended absence (knee). Still, NAW has averaged 17.0 points per game in his five appearances this season alongside Young. If Alexander-Walker’s three-point shooting can start to come around, the breakout season will only get better for the two-way guard.
### Moussa Diabate — C, Hornets
Diabate has found a home in Charlotte after a couple of forgettable seasons with the Clippers to begin his career. Now part of a young Hornets nucleus, he’s proven to be an important member of the nightly frontcourt rotation. Diabate has mostly come off the bench and attacked the glass hard — he’s recorded at least 10 boards in five of the last eight games while scoring in double figures in four of those five, consistently placing him on double-double alert. Diabate leads the Hornets in rebounding, and with his activity on defense, he could be a reliable streaming option or potentially a roster-worthy player in fantasy leagues if he can grow into an even larger role.
📉 STOCK DOWN
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### John Collins — PF/C, Clippers
Not a lot has gone according to plan for the Clippers early in this season. Injuries to Kawhi Leonard (foot), Bradley Beal (hip), and, more recently, Derrick Jones (knee) have hurt them, but opened the door for guys like Collins to step into greater roles and potentially provide more production. Unfortunately, this has not been the case for Collins. Since moving into the starting lineup, he’s averaging 9.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 0.0 assists on 39.1 percent shooting. Perhaps his fit will be better once Leonard makes his way back to the floor. But until then, Collins is trending in the wrong direction at a time when all of his talent is needed in Los Angeles.
### Zach LaVine — PG/SG/SF, Kings
After a strong start to the season in which LaVine had averaged 29.2 points and scored at least 30 points in four of the five games, he’s suddenly become a player whose production is difficult to predict, which isn’t dissimilar to the Kings’ other big-name players. LaVine has failed to make it out of single figures in scoring in two of the last five games and has only averaged 18.0 points per game in November. The interesting part here is that his shooting efficiency has remained high, but he has seen a big decrease in his attempts. It’s hard to get a feel for what exactly Sacramento is trying to do, as the team struggles to find solutions to end this current six-game losing streak. Regardless, this isn’t an ideal situation for those fantasy managers who have LaVine rostered.
### Nikola Vučević — C, Bulls
The Bulls’ hot start was a fun early-season story. As they’ve cooled off, so too has Vucevic, whose numbers have dropped from 19.8 points, 12.0 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game in October to a 13.4/8.8/3.3 line across November’s eight contests. His 50.0 percent shooting from beyond the arc was always going to be unsustainable, but his 25.0 percent over the last three has led to some rough scoring outings. Can he regain his early-season form? There aren’t many backup center options behind him in the rotation that would eat away at his minutes. Still, it’s fair to wonder what level of production the veteran can sustain. Stock down.
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