NBA 2K23: BEST Playmaking Badges

The much-awaited newest installment to the NBA 2K series is finally out. NBA 2K23 has already seen record players jump on its servers to enhance their skills on the court. Each year the NBA game returns with new mechanics that the players need to adapt to. It’s essential to get the hang of these skills in NBA 2K23 if you want to become the best. 

Every Basketball fan knows very well how important Playmaking skills are in the sport. Therefore, it’s important to find out what the Best Playmaking Badges are in NBA 2K23. These badges will not only polish your playmaking skills, but they will also compliment your shooting, passing, and Dribble Moves.

With these Playmaking Badges, you will notice an instant change in your dribbling skills, passing expertise, and jump shots. 

NBA 2K23 features multiple kinds of Badges that cover specific aspects of the game. You can equip badges from the categories of; Shooting, Playmaking, Finishing, and Defense/Rebounding. There’s no way you can overlook these badges since they have the ability to increase your performance on the court.

Working on your playmaking skill will completely change your stance in NBA 2K23. In an instant, you will notice your player making crazy plays, twisting ankles, and setting up teammates. On top of that, having the Best Playmaking Badges in NBA 2K23, you will become even harder to hold back on the court.

What Are Playmaking Badges

If you’re someone who has been playing NBA games for some time now, you’d be fully aware of how important Badges are. Applying different badges in NBA 2K23 will grant your player various buffs and boosts on the court. With the right badges in your inventory, you can potentially become unstoppable.

Even though there are four different kinds of Badge categories in NBA 2K23 (Shooting, Finishing, Playmaking, and Defense/Rebounding), we will only be focusing on Playmaking today. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Point Guard, Center, or Power Guard; having Playmaking skills in your locker is a must in NBA 2K23. 

It not only makes passing to your teammates easier, but it also enhances your dribbling skills, ability to create spaces, and shooting as well. With the Best Playmaking Badges, the performance of your whole team will get escalated. However, to get these Badges, you first need to accumulate some Playmaking Badge points in NBA 2K23.

Confused about how to do that? Don’t worry, and we have you covered! To get Playmaking Badges, you need to make some successful team plays with your player on the court. You can earn Playmaking Badge Points by the following; Attack Assists, Alley-Oop Assists, Deep Outlet Passes, and Pick & Roll Assists. 

If you successfully do any of these during a game, you will be guaranteed a few Playmaking Badge Points. If your player wins the game, he will get extra Badge points as well.

Before we start listing down the Best Playmaking Badges, we will first go through the method of getting easy assists in the game. To do that, first, you need to take your player to the perimeter. Once there, start wrapping around the perimeter while holding down L1/LB on your controller.

Holding the button will call for a screen, which will allow your player to step inside the perimeter and make a lob pass to your teammate who’s making a screen run. 

Most of the time, this will guarantee an assist for your player, which will ultimately get you Playmaking Badge Points in NBA 2K23. However, make sure you perfectly time your lob pass because if you don’t, then the opposing player could easily tip or intercept it. 

Once you have stacked up Playmaking points, then you can move on to the next section and learn how you can equip some of the Best NBA 2K23 Playmaking Badges. 

Best Playmaking Badges In NBA 2K23

Now that you know the fundamentals of Playmaking Badges in NBA 2K23. We can now begin to work out and reveal the Best badges you can get to get that extra bump-up to your dribbling and passing skills on the court. Once you’ve created your player in the MyCAREER mode and gone through the intro, you can then instantly get straight to business.

First, we will teach you how you can find out the amount of Playmaking badge points you have. Along with how to unlock badges using these points. After you’ve put in a shift as a lethal playmaker, the game will notify you that you’ve unlocked a few badge points. You can then pause and go to the main menu in the ‘MyCAREER‘ mode. 

Switch the tabs until you reach the ‘Progression‘ sub-menu. Here you will be able to see all the badge points you have accumulated thus far. Click on the ‘Badges‘ option and then make your way to the Playmaking section by pressing the R1/RB button on your controller. You will now notice 16 Playmaking Badges; Eight in Tier 1, Four in Tier 2, and Four in Tier 3. 

Each Badge can be unlocked by using a Playmaking Badge point. It can then be upgraded up to three times. Every badge has four sub-categories; Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Hall of Fame. When you upgrade to the Hall of Fame variant of a badge, it would mean that you’ve maxed it out.

You can unlock the Tier 1 and 2 Badges right away, but in order to unlock the badges in Tier 3, you will first need to spend at least ten relevant badge points. Now that you’re all caught up with the basics of Playmaking Badges, we can begin listing down the best ones in NBA 2K23.

Floor General (Tier 1)

First up, we have the most important Playmaking Badge to have in NBA 2K23. There is no chance that you should miss out on this gem. The player can immediately obtain the badge because it is in Tier 1, which is a bonus point. The Floor General badge won’t affect the player himself. However, it will provide stat boosts to all the other players on the court.

Here is a quick look at the details of the Floor General Badge in NBA 2K23.

• Description: Teammates receive a boost to their offensive attributes when this player is in the game.
• Requirements (Hall of Fame): 86 Pass Accuracy.

Having the Floor General Badge will make the attacking attributes of your teammates go up, which will automatically make offensive plays a lot easier for you. Your teammates will make better offensive passes, clinical shots, and great runs between open spaces. The Floor General will make the team unstoppable if it already has some amazing offensive players on the court.

It doesn’t really matter what position you play in; equipping the Floor General will make your teammate’s game rise up.

Ankle Breaker (Tier 1)

The Ankle Breaker Badge is a great pick for the Dribblers in NBA 2K23. There’s nothing more satisfying in Basketball than breaking the opponent’s ankle. Of course, breaking ankles isn’t a literal term in the sport. It refers to when the defender either loses balance or falls due to the sleek dribble by the other player. 

Below you can read out the description of the Ankle Breaker Badge in NBA 2K23, along with its Hall of Fame requirement. 

• Description: When performing stepbacks and other certain moves, the defender stumbles or falls more frequently when biting the wrong.
• Requirements (Hall of Fame): 81 Ball Handle.

Having the Ankle Breaker in your locker, you will frequently find yourself putting the defenders down on the floor, which will gain you more followers in MyCAREER mode and also open up the whole play on the court. After breezing past opposing Guards and Centers, you can then either make a clean shot or lay up one of your teammates.

Either way, the Ankle Breaker Badge should not be ignored, especially by the players who love to dribble in NBA 2K23. 

Unpluckable (Tier 2)

For the Unpluckable Badge, we take a slight left turn due to its nature as compared to the last two badges we reviewed. With the Unpluckable Badge in NBA 2K23, your ball handling skills will get a major boost allowing you to be more stable and trustworthy with the ball at hand. It is a great badge to have, especially if you repeatedly have the ball nicked off you.

You can read below about what the Unpluckable Badge in NBA 2K23 actually does.

• Description: Opposing Defenders have a tougher time poking the ball free with their steal attempts.
• Requirements (Hall of Fame): 95 Post Control or Ball Handling.

Apart from getting badges like the Ankle Breaker and Floor General, it’s important to have something like Unpluckable in your locker too. It will make it harder for the opposing defenders to steal the ball from your player. If you don’t have it on, you will often see your player giving up possession which leads to counterattacks on the court.

If you’re running a Point Guard build in NBA 2K23, we insist you get the Unpluckable Badge ASAP! It will make life a lot easier for you in the game. 

Quick First Step (Tier 2)

Another entry from the Tier 2 Badges we have is the Quick First Step. This will make flashing past opponents much easier, which makes it one of the Best Playmaking Badges in NBA 2K23, especially for the dribblers. The Quick First Step badge works very well with dribble moves that have speed bursts in them. Your player will feel more agile while beating opposing guards.

Here is a quick rundown of the details about the Quick First Step Badge in NBA 2K23. 

• Description: When driving out of triple threat or after a size-up, ball handlers have access to quicker and more effective launches.
• Requirements (Hall of Fame): 99 Post Control or 88 Speed with Ball or 89 Ball Handling.

Having more effective launches will allow you to skip past the defender while using either the Signature Size-up or Size-up Escape Package dribble move. Beating a guard will instantly make the whole defense collapse, then you can sprint down to the basket and finish up the play by picking your shot or setting up your teammate as a true playmaker. 

There are no exceptions as to who can get the Quick First Step badge. However, we would strongly advise NBA 2K23’s point guards to have this badge equipped. Quick First Step badge also goes well with the Ankle Breaker.

Handles For Days (Tier 3)

The last one on our list of NBA 2K23 Playmaking Badges we have ‘Handles for Days’. This badge will further increase your dribbling expertise on the court, most specifically for the Point Guard and Ball Handlers. Playmaking is only possible when you position yourself correctly on the basketball court, and you can only do that by pulling out ankle-breaking dribbles. 

However, performing these dribbles can wear out your player’s stamina. This is where the Handles for Days Badge in NBA 2K23 comes in. 

• Description: A player takes less of an energy hit when performing consecutive dribble moves, allowing them to chain together combos quicker and for longer periods of time.
• Requirements (Hall of Fame): 99 Ball Handle.

Hence, if you have the Handle for Days maxed out, you won’t need to worry about wearing out your player. You will be able to chain multiple dribble combos and showboat all you want but make sure it leads to something on the court. Apart from showboating, it can be utilized quite effectively as well while having a minor toll on your energy.

Another must-have for all the ballers in NBA 2K23. If you somehow equip Handle for Days, Ankle Breaker, and Quick First Step together, you’ll become unstoppable.

Honorable Mentions

Creating the Best Playmaking Badges list in NBA 2K23 was extremely hard for us. It felt unfair to leave some of the badges out. Thus, we decided to make this section so we could include a few more badges that we think are worth getting in the game. 

Playmaking revolves around a couple of things that we mentioned before. It includes passing, dribbling, and ball handling. Therefore, it is important to hit all three targets when you’re picking the Top Playmaking Badges in NBA 2K23.

So our first pick in the Honorable Mentions section is the ‘Clamp Breaker‘ Badge (Tier 3). By equipping this badge, your player’s ability to fight off contact, protect the ball, and drive by opponents will improve as a ball handler.

Therefore, it’s important to have the Clamp Breaker, especially if you’re responsible for carrying the ball down the court. Increasing your ball security is a great upgrade in NBA 2K23.

The second Playmaking Badge we want to mention in our guide is the ‘Dimer‘ (Tier 1). The Dimer Badge will increase the shot percentage after passes made by Dimers to open shooters in the half-court. If you recurringly find yourself making plays for your teammates by setting them up for shots, then you should definitely go for the Dimer Badge. It will boost the shooting attributes of your teammates whenever you pass the ball to them. 

So there you have it, our two inclusions in the Honorable Mentions section. We couldn’t finish our guide without including the Dimer and Clamp Breaker Playmaking Badges from NBA 2K23. 

Verdict

We hope you learned loads of valuable information from our guide about the Best NBA 2K23 Playmaking Badges. It doesn’t matter how you create plays on the court. As long as you have these Badges equipped and maxed out, you will feel much more confident in your abilities. 

Having the Best Playmaking Badges will abruptly raise your passing, dribbling, and ball-carrying skills on the court. Thank you for reading through our NBA 2K23 Guide; stick around at eXputer to learn more stuff about your favorite Sports Games.