The Tight Handles badge is new for NBA 2K20 and boosts your player’s ball handling in one-on-one situations. This badge also makes it easier to chain dribble moves.
The badge is a must have for dribblers, as it allows you to dribble more cleanly, and in some circumstances, freeze your defender from making a play on the ball.
Recommendation: Dribblers need at least Silver Tight Handles, with even more benefits coming from the badge on higher levels. Other builds, including non-dribbling guards, do not need this badge.
The Stop & Go badge is new for NBA 2K20 and allows ball handlers to quickly stop-and-go while dribbling. You also get unique launch animations on stop-and-gos with this badge.
NBA2KLab determined this badge to be quite useless, and we agree with this sentiment. It’s already pretty easy to stop out of a dribble chain by pressing the left bumper, deeming Stop & Go pretty useless.
Recommendation: We don’t recommend putting any badge points into Stop & Go, as you could put some Playmaking into other dribbling badges that will help you break the defender more efficiently.
The Difficult Shots badge is back for NBA 2K22 and boosts your player’s ability to make shots off the dribble and moving shots in the mid range, including fading jumpers, spin jumpers, hop shot jumpers, and other moving shots.
To unlock Difficult Shots on next-gen:
Bronze: 66 Mid Range
Silver: 75 Mid Range
Gold: 84 Mid Range
Hall of Fame: 95 Mid Range
Recommendation: We recommend maxing out Difficult Shots for players who take a bunch of moving shots, but otherwise it is a largely useless badge for standstill shots.
The Post Spin Technician badge is back for NBA 2K22 current and next-gen and boosts a player’s post spin or post drive. It is in the Playmaking category of badges. .
To unlock Post Spin Technician for your player on next-gen, you’ll need these attributes:
Bronze: 55 Post Control
Silver: 67 Post Control
Gold: 75 Post Control
Hall of Fame: 84 Post Control
Recommendation: Post Scorers who have a lot of playmaking badge points should get Post Spin Technician on Gold or Hall of Fame, while other bigs with ample playmaking points could put it on bronze or silver for the post spin boost and better animations down low.
Acrobat has been around for quite some time in the NBA 2K games, but very few players have been able to fully take advantage of the animations this badge grants you.
For 2K23, Acrobat is largely the same, as it increases your ability to make difficult layups. This badge is going to be useless for your player unless you try a lot of reverse layups or even have the stick stills for more advanced lineups.
Aerial Wizard
Before there were specific badges for finishing lobs and putbacks. For NBA 2K23, both of these abilities are combined into one new badge: Aerial Wizard.
This badge replaces Lob City Finisher and Putback Boss and improves your player’s ability to finish alley-oops and putbacks. If you are a decent lob threat, we recommend this badge on at least the lower levels.
Backdown Punisher
NBA 2K is not always programmed to allow bigger players to back down smaller ones, as you may see in real life, so there is a badge to help you do so: Backdown Punisher.
This badge increases the chances of a player successfully backing down an opponent. It works for all players against all players, but we only recommend it for big men who frequently play the post.
Bully
Even if you had a high strength rating and a few inches on the opponent, finsihing in traffic was always a nightmare. For NBA 2K23, there’s a new badge to fight through traffic in the paint instead of having to jump over them.
Bully increases your player’s ability to finish strong by bulldozing through traffic. 2K lists Giannis and Lebron as good examples of this badge, but we have a feeling you won’t be as dominant as either in the paint with this badge.
Dream Shake
Dream Shake is a post scoring badge that raises the chances that a defender bites when doing fakes in the post. It doesn’t work that well against the AI or against humans, so we don’t recommend it.
Dropstepper
The dropstep was nearly impossible a few years ago in NBA 2K19, but has since lost its luster. Regardless, 2K has continued to include Dropstepper in the list of finishing badges.
This badge improves a player’s ability to effectively use dropsteps in the paint. The only players who are going to need or use this badge are Post Scorers.
Fast Twitch
The advent of Pogo Stick and spamming jumps in the paint was a nightmare for any offense, so 2K developed a badge that hoped to counter the unstoppable move.
Fast Twitch is back for NBA 2K23 and boosts the ability to jump quicker for standing layups and dunks. It didn’t really work that well (and Pogo Stick was nerfed), so we don’t recommend it besides on a lower level.
Fearless Finisher
Contact layups were one of the most random events in NBA 2K for years, as you would get a whole host of animations and results. Fearless Finisher was the fix to hopefully create some consistency in paint.
This badge improves the ability to finish contact layups. We did see that it worked a bit, and it was a must-have for a lot of slashers, but most players would benefit most from having this badge on Bronze or Silver.
Giant Slayer
Smaller players always complained that it was impossible to finish near larger defenders, and it was true: Big men were getting unrealistic blocks on guards. Giant Slayer was introduced.
This badge heightens the efectiveness of layups over taller defenders. It works, and although you won’t finish impossible or even tougher layups, guards should have this badge in their arsenal.
Limitless Takeoff
Crazy dunks, like Jordan’s free throw line dunk, have always been a part of NBA 2K. For 2K22 and now 2K23, there’s a badge that helps you get more of these insane animations.
Limitless Takeoff boosts the ability to soar from further away on driving dunk attempts. It is one of the top finishing badges a must-have for builds with higher dunk ratings.
Masher
The inability to finish layups and dunks over smaller defenders has infuriated big men for years, so 2K released a badge called Mouse in the House in 2K22. It was not good at all, so 2K has reworked and given it a new name.
Masher increases the ability to finish inside layups over defenders. We’re a bit skeptical about how well this badge will work, but it will be good to at least have on Bronze or Silver for the first few months.
Post Spin Technician
Post Spin Technician boosts post spin moves or drives. The post spin has not worked that effectively for years, so we can’t recommend it for anything other than dedicated post scorers.
Posterizer
Post Spin Technician: Improves the ability of a post spin or drive to work effectively.
Posterizer: Improves the likelihood of posterizing your opponent.
Pro Touch: Gives an additional boost for having good layup timing or aiming.
Rise Up: Makes it easier to dunk when under the basket.
Slithery:
Tear Dropper: Increases the chance of hitting floaters and runners.
