Before a single attribute point is spent, the body you pick has already decided most of what your build can be. Height, wingspan, weight, body type and anomaly together set the cap of all 22 attributes.
Height, wingspan and weight
Height raises the caps for Standing Dunk, Interior Defense, Block and Rebound the most, and close-range finishing a little. It lowers Steal sharply, and Lateral Speed, Speed, Acceleration, Vertical and Pass Accuracy by less. Shooting caps hardly move with height.
Wingspan is the big trade for shooters and ball handlers. A longer wingspan raises Steal a lot and adds to dunks, finishing, Block, Rebound and defense, but it costs Ball Handle most of all, and Mid-Range and Three-Point Shot too. It doesn't change Speed or Acceleration at all.
Weight buys Strength, Post Control and Interior Defense, and costs Lateral Speed, Ball Handle, Speed, Acceleration and Vertical. Free Throw and Stamina don't depend on the body.
Because the caps move in opposite directions, there is no best height. The right body is the one whose high caps are the attributes your badges need.
Body types
There are five body types: Normal, Slim, Narrow, Built and Bulky. Normal changes nothing. Slim adds Lateral Speed, Speed and Acceleration and takes away Strength, Interior Defense and a little Post Control. Narrow is the same trade made bigger, roughly twice the Lateral Speed and Speed for twice the loss inside, and it also dips Block and Rebound. Built is a small trade: a few points of Strength for a couple of Perimeter Defense. Bulky is the heavy one: a lot more Strength, Post Control, Interior Defense and Standing Dunk, paid for with Speed, Acceleration and Perimeter Defense.
The size of each trade depends on the position, and a body type can move a cap by one point on one body and two on another, so check the caps for your exact body before deciding.
Anomalies
An anomaly is a bigger trade: it raises a group of attributes a lot and lowers others. Which ones you can pick depends on the position:
- Point Guard: Post-Scoring, Defense and Finishing, or none.
- Shooting Guard: Post-Scoring, Defense and Finishing, or none.
- Small Forward: Shooting and Playmaking, or none.
- Power Forward: Shooting and Playmaking, or none.
- Center: Shooting, Playmaking and Agility, or none.
Each of the Post-Scoring, Defense, Finishing, Shooting, Playmaking and Agility anomalies pushes its own group of caps up, usually by somewhere between 8 and 20 points, and takes several points off many of the others. Shooting raises the three shooting caps, Playmaking raises Pass Accuracy and Ball Handle, Defense raises nearly every defensive cap, Finishing raises layups and dunks, Post-Scoring raises Post Control and Strength, and Agility raises Speed, Acceleration and Lateral Speed. An anomaly is only worth it when the caps it raises are ones your build was going to use anyway.
Position limits
Each position also has a ceiling on some attributes that no body gets past. A Power Forward or Center can't reach the Ball Handle a guard can, however short and light the body, and a Center's Speed and Acceleration stop short of the top as well. Guards have their own limits on the inside attributes. So a few badges and takeovers are simply closed to some positions; each badge page says which.
The builder shows the real caps for the exact body you pick.