S Tier- Necessary for Most Players
Quick First Step: A necessary for any player who will have the ball in their hands, as it allows you to actually move with some urgency with the ball. Should be maxed for most players, perhaps besides big men.
Bullet Passer: Another necessary for the wide majority of players, as Bullet Passer helps you combat the crazy steal animations in this year’s game. Every player should have it, and main ball handlers should think about maxing it.
Handles for Days: This badge needs to be maxed out for ball handlers, or else you won’t be able to do more than a few dribble moves. It’s not necessary out of ball handlers, but it is literally the most important dribbling badge.
Quick Chain: Another necessary badge for dribbling builds, as it will help you quickly transition between dribble moves.
A Tier – Great Badges for Some Builds
Glue Hands: Many scoff at this badge, but playing MyTeam has shown that this badge will help you get great catch animations before shots. You don’t need to max it out, but it works great on even Bronze or Silver.
Hyperdrive: This badge is better for slashing to the hoop, but Hyperdrive helps you speed up individual dribble moves to fool defenders. We recommend it for dribbling moves, but not before Quick Chain.
Tight Handles: Yet another dribbling badge that ball handlers need, as Tight Handles will stun your defender and allow you to get open shots either in the paint or behind the 3pt line.
Unpluckable: An underwhelming badge that most players at least need on Bronze. While we question its ability on higher levels, it necessity puts it on the A Tier level.
B Tier – Good Badges if You Have Extra Points
Dimer: Dimer is one of the most powerful badges in the game, but is really only needed if you have lower rated shooters on your team. Other badges are more necessary, but Dimer can be super powerful in the right situation.
Space Creator: A great badge combined with the Damian Lillard step back dribble move, but the step back is far from the best dribble move available.
Needle Threader: A Rec badge that can counter Interceptor, but is probably best used on Bronze or Silver with your extra badge points. It’s not OP, but it can help you avoid stupid steal animations every once in a while.
Bail Out: Another badge most players should have on Bronze to allow them to pass out of bad shots. It’s not worth having on higher levels, but even Bronze Bail Out will save you countless times.
C Tier – Decent Badges but Limited Usage
Floor General: Like Dimer, Floor General can be helpful in the right situation. However, it is not more powerful than any of the other badges, and should be reserved for those with a ton of playmaking badge points.
Ankle Breaker: This badge can be useful if you chase ankle breakers, but it activates too little to devote serious badge points to it. Tight Handles and Space Creator usually do more to break down your defender.
Stop & Go: Some claim this badge is OP, but we don’t notice much of a speed boost out of quick stops and other stops.
Downhill: With how OP chase down blocks are and also how speed is still unbalanced, Downhill really has limited uses for most builds. It can be helpful in some cases, though, but we don’t recommend it.
D Tier – Avoid These Badges
Post Playmaker: Post Playmaker can work if you mimic Nikola Jokic’s game in 2K22, but given how rare that is, this badge should mostly be avoided.
Triple Threat Juke: We have yet to see consistent results with this badge, and the Triple Threat is still not a great move against anyone but the computer, so we would stay away from this badge.
Break Starter: Full-court passes are still to easy without this badge, so while it may be helpful for rebounding big men on the Bronze level, it is still far from being necessary.
Special Delivery: With how hard lobs are this year, any badge involving them has lost a ton of value. This means Special Delivery, which helps throw lobs, will not see much use outside of players who know how to throw and catch lobs.
