The 5 best builds in NBA 2K22

Picking an optimal build in NBA 2K22 MyCareer that suits your playing style is important if you want your fictional character to become one of the league’s best and take the crown of LeBron James.

You get to create your build before starting your MyCareer journey and it’s basically where you define your position, height, weight, wingspan, in-game attributes, badges, and takeover. The skills you assign to your build will determine what kind of player you’ll have to use. This guide will provide you some solid advice, especially if you’re new to NBA 2K, but keep in mind that you should try to choose a build that will fit your playing style. For example, there’s no point in creating a three-point shooter if you just like to go for dunks and layups.

Here are the best builds in NBA 2K22 in the order of guards, forwards, and centers.

1) Two-way shot creator

This build is one of the best options if you want to play a fast point-guard that will be able to go for layups and dunks, but also knock off some clutch three-point and mid-range shots. This player will also be able to hold his own in defense if you distribute the points wisely.

You want this character to be agile, so choose a height between six-foot-two and six-foot-four, and go with minimal weight and wingspan. As for the points, invest heavily in offensive attributes like driving layup, driving dunk, mid-range shot, and three-point shot. Given you’re making a point guard, save some points for Playmaking as you don’t want to miss your passes too often.

If you don’t spend your points on attributes such as standing dunk, post control, and interior defense, you should have more than enough points to make your player great in defense as well by investing those in perimeter defense and steal.

After you’re done you should see the takeover screen with options like ankle-breaking shots and spot-up precision. If you’re on new-gen you’ll have to choose two, but if you’re on old-gen, you pick only one. Choose your favorite and your character should resemble the likes of John Wall and James Harden.

2) Sharpshooting facilitator

This build is primarily made for players that want to have a deadly three-point shot and still give some assists throughout the game. If you’re mechanically skilled in NBA 2K22, this one is a good one to try.

Again, choose a height between six-foot-two and six-foot-four so your character doesn’t lose too much speed, minimal weight, and maximum wingspan, because you’ll be a scoring machine regardless of that. Put everything you can in mid-range, three-point, and free-throw, so you don’t get punished when they fault you. And they will.

Don’t invest too much in finishing as this is not the point of this build. By doing that, you’ll have enough points to boost your pass accuracy, ball handle, speed with ball, perimeter defense, and steal. It’s a build made to carry your team, so if you don’t know how to time your shots and get the greens, this one perhaps is not the best for you.

You might as well pick spot-up shooter as your takeover and your character should be similar to scoring beasts like Stephen Curry.

3) Two-way slasher

This build is probably the most all-rounded one on this list. As a small-forward, you should ideally be good at passing the ball, finishing, and defending. It may sound too hard for beginners, but think that you’ll have a balanced player that literally can help on both ends on the court if you put some time into your game.

Go with six-foot-six height, 178 pounds, and max wingspan. This way you will still be agile, but also strong enough to not be bullied by your opponents and you want max wingspan because you’ll not be shooting the ball, only finishing and defending. That’s why it’s called a two-way slasher.

Focus on assigning points in close shot, driving layup, driving dunk, and standing dunk. Skip shooting’s stats other than free throw, and invest a lot of points in ball handle and speed with the ball. You should have enough points to invest in perimeter defense, steal, and defensive rebounds, as you want to help your team by grabbing some, even though you won’t have the height to go toe-to-toe against a big man.

When you’re done, go with the slasher takeover and your player should have the resemblance of the former Phoenix Suns player Shawn Marion.

4) Stretch four

This build will allow your power forward to shoot from three-point range instead of just having to rely on shooting from close range, making layups and dunks. The legendary German player Dirk Nowitzki was great at it and kind of set the trend for the next generation.

Create a player around six-foot-nine and choose a weight around 190 pounds because he isn’t there to fight against players similar to Shaquille O’Neal. Set their wingspan to 88 inches to help with his shooting mechanics, and spend a high amount of points in mid-range, three-point, and free-throw.

Even though you won’t put a lot of points in finishing, the trick of this build is to nail some three-pointers and later bait the CPU into guarding close to the perimeter line, so you can move and shoot from mid-range or finish with layups or dunks. Save the playmaking points to invest in defensive stats such as rebounding, interior defense, and blocking. You won’t be a rim protector type of player, but the badges will turn you into an OK defender.

Go with spot-up shooter as your takeover move if you wish to enhance your ability from hitting three-pointers.

5) Paint beast

The glass lockdown build is totally different than the stretch four. It’s pure down to making dunks instead of worrying about shooting mechanics. It’s not the most meta build but it is definitely a good one to have fun and roll back the NBA years, a time when it was all about big men like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Hakeem Olajuwon.

Go with seven-foot-one, max weight, and maximum wingspan as you’re not looking for mobility nor shooting attributes. Spend a good chunk of points in close shot, driving dunk, and standing dunk. Completely ignore shooting aside from the free throw stat as you don’t want the CPU to hack a-Shaq your character. A great way to use this build in offense is to help your teammates by setting screens, it’ll do wonders for your match note whenever they hit a three-pointer.

Put everything you can in interior defense, defensive rebounding, offensive rebounding, and block so you can become the best rim protector in the NBA and made other players scare of facing you inside the paint. This build is far away from what we see in the NBA today, but you’ll become a great player if you learn how to use its strengths. For takeover, you can go with glass cleaner, which will help you to get almost every rebound.