Some of the players in the GOAT (greatest of all time) debate in the NBA played the shooting guard position.

It should therefore not come as a surprise that many players want to play as a shooting guard in NBA 2K22 – with players looking to emulate their sporting heroes.

If you are a fan of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, or Allen Iverson, we have found the best builds that can help you play in a similar style to those all-time greats.

Read along to see what physical profiles, attributes, and badges you will need in order to develop the best shooting guard build in NBA 2K22.

And, if you wish, you can customize them slightly to put your own spin on the position.

Shooting Guard Build Overview

Similar to the best small forward build in NBA 2K22, what you will want to do is make your player a beast on both offense and defense.

Among the player archetypes available for shooting guard in the game, the two-way sharpshooter is the most ideal choice for this build.

Creating and playing as this character will help you shoot the lights out then lock down opponents on defense.

Skill Breakdown

For the skill breakdown, the two abilities you will need a high distribution of are shooting and defense/rebounding. But instead of choosing the pie chart with an equal allocation of the two, it is better to select the one with a greater amount of shooting.

Having higher defense/rebounding will lead to better agility attributes, including speed, acceleration, and vertical.

However, the physical features you will be setting later will also provide a boost to your player’s agility. It is more advisable then to go for the skill breakdown with more shooting.

Physical Profile

In setting your player’s physical profile, what you will want to prioritize are agility and vertical. While strength is essential to playing good defense, it is nicer to be able to move more quickly on the court.

Between agility and vertical, the former is more important. Because your player is more of a shooter than a finisher, having more speed and acceleration than vertical is more sensible.

Setting Your Potential

When setting your potential, there is a number of attributes that you will have to maximize. And some of them, you can just leave be.

The offensive attributes you should increase to the limit are driving layup, driving dunk, mid-range shot, three-point shot, free throw, pass accuracy, and ball handle. Raise the post fade to around 54 just to give your character 23 potential shooting badge upgrades.

On the other hand, the defensive attributes to maximize are interior defense, perimeter defense, lateral quickness, steal, block, and defensive rebound.

After you have done everything above, you will be left with a little less than 30 attribute upgrade points. You can just assign the remaining points to close shot to help your character finish better inside the paint.

Physical Attributes

The resulting attribute bonus or penalty from raising or lowering the height from the default 6-foot-5 setting has pros and cons. I recommend not changing it anymore as to prevent any significant decrease to relevant attributes.

As for the weight, set it to exactly 178 lbs. Any point higher will give your player lower acceleration. Conversely, reducing it a bit further will lower the interior defense while not giving any more boost to the agility.

Lastly, for the wingspan, I suggest contracting it to 80.6 inches to provide additional strength and boost in shooting attributes.

Takeover

Each of the three takeover options is a terrific choice. Spot Up Shooter can improve your player’s ability to hit from deep, and Shot Creator can make you more effective in shaking off opponents using dribbling moves.

Nevertheless, the Lockdown Defender takeover is the best among the three for various reasons. The opportunity to clamp down even the best offensive players is just too good to pass up. It can also allow you to record more defensive stats, including steals and blocks.

The Best Shooting Guard Build Badges

Because your player archetype is a sharpshooter, you will undoubtedly need badges that can let your character shoot even in the face of defenders or create space from them.

It also helps your field goal percentage if you can hit the shot meter accurately. Choose one of the three best jumpshots in NBA 2K22 to help you master the shooting mechanics in the game.

Of course, you should also spend time looking for the best badges to use in the defense/rebounding categories. After all, you are building a two-way shooting guard build.

Finishing Badges

You will only receive a maximum of one badge upgrade in the finishing class. There are several sound choices, but what I suggest that you unlock is Fearless Finisher. The badge can help you convert inside the paint even when opponents body your player up.

1. Fearless Finisher – Improves the player’s ability to absorb contact and still finish dunks and layups. Also reduces the amount of energy lost when attempting contact layups.

Shooting Badges

As mentioned earlier, you will need shooting badges that will enable your player to shoot over opponents, such as Blinders, Deadeye, and Mismatch Expert. Fortunately, you will eventually get more than 20 potential badge upgrade points under this category.

Be sure to also assign some points to Volume Shooter to reduce the penalty that can be incurred due to attempting too many shots.

The Corner Specialist, Difficult Shots, Limitless Spot-up, Rhythm Shooter, and Stop & Pop will increase your chances of swishing shots off dribbles or passes from teammates.

1. Blinders – Jump shots taken with a defender closing out in their peripheral vision will suffer a low penalty.

2. Corner Specialist – Deep range shots taken along the baseline receive a boost, whether it is off the dribble or off a catch.

3. Deadeye – Jump shots taken with a defender closing out receive less of a penalty from a shot contest.

4. Difficult Shots – High-difficulty jumpers, such as hop steps, spins, stepbacks, and pull-ups receive a shot percentage boost from mid-range.

5. Limitless Spot-up – Gives a boost to the range that the player can effectively shoot standing three-point shots.

6. Mismatch Expert – After forcing the switch, the player will have more success when shooting over a taller defender.

7. Rhythm Shooter – Increases the chances of a made shot after sizing up your opponent with dribble moves.

8. Stop & Pop – Boosts shot rating on stand-still three-pointers after dribbling.

9. Volume Shooter – After a player has taken a small handful of shots, an additional boost to shot attributes is given for every subsequent shot, regardless if it’s a make or miss.

Playmaking Badges

With 10 potential upgrade points for playmaking badges, you can either spread them out to many badges or opt to upgrade fewer badge types to the gold tier.

But some badges are just too great to overlook, so using the points on at least five badges is the more prudent choice. The badges listed here will help you break down opponents in the open court or half-court setting.

1. Ankle Breaker – When performing stepbacks and other certain dribbling moves, the defender stumbles or falls more frequently when biting the wrong way.

2. Downhill – Gives a bonus to the player’s Speed With Ball attribute in fastbreak situations.

3. Handles for Days – The player takes less of an energy hit when performing consecutive dribble moves, allowing them to chain together combos more quickly and for longer periods of time.

4. Quick First Step – When driving out of triple threat or after a size-up, the ballhandler is given access to quicker and more effective launches.

5. Space Creator – When performing any stepback move or shot, there’s a higher chance of successfully creating separation from the opponent.

Defense/Rebounding Badges

With as many as 20 upgrade points at your disposal, you can unlock several badges that will boost your player’s defensive abilities. You can just focus on the defense badges rather than the rebounding ones since you will be using a shooting guard.

The first badges that I suggest you upgrade are Tireless Defender, Clamps, and Ankle Braces. This way, exerting more effort on defense will not take too much of a hit on your energy and you can stay in front of ballhandlers more effectively.

Strengthen your player’s ability to steal the ball from the opponents with Ball Stripper, Interceptor, and Pick Pocket. And because you might be navigating through traffic to hound opposing shooters when on defense, you can also unlock Off-ball Pest and Pick Dodger.

1. Ankle Braces – Lowers the likelihood of getting ankle-broken by opposing dribble moves.

2. Ball Stripper – Increases the chances of successfully stealing the ball when stripping an opponent who is attempting a layup or dunk.

3. Clamps – The player is given access to quicker cut-off moves and is more successful when bumping or hip riding the ball handler.

4. Interceptor – The frequency of successfully tipped or intercepted passes greatly increases.

5. Off-ball Pest – Makes the player more difficult to get past or shake off when playing off-ball as he can grab and hold his matchup and does not get his ankles broken as often.

6. Pick Dodger – Improves the player’s ability to navigate through and around screens while on defense.

7. Pick Pocket – Boosts the chances of a steal and reduces the chances of fouling the ball handler when attempting to strip the ball from him.

8. Tireless Defender – Allows the player to play defense more aggressively without losing that much energy.

Final Thoughts

By choosing to play as a shooting guard, chances are you want to be heavily involved in the team’s offense. But if you happen to have an off-night shooting the ball, you can still find ways to impact the game, especially if you have great defensive attributes.

Following everything I have laid out will give you the best shooting guard build in NBA 2K22 – the two-way sharpshooter.

After setting up your player, make sure to check how to become a starter in MyCareer. Being promoted to the starting lineup will provide you more opportunities to lead the team to win after win.