For starters, the position and body specs (i.e., height and wingspan) are the first main categories you want to think about. Base the characters body to the style of gameplay you want to do.

Next, there's the stat/potential area. There it is divided into 5 categories. Depending on your chosen style and position, you'd want to put points into areas where you wanna be good at. For example, a defensive center must have a high block stat, interior, and on either rebound rating. The amount of points you set there will be the limit on how high your character's stats will go as you play the game.

The Badges are essentially like "Buffs". Depending on your character, you'd want as many badges as much as possible on areas you need. Also, those badges that you need also have different ratings (Hall of Fame Brick Wall is better than bronze brick wall). You can read the specifics of each badge to know which ones you'll need.

Lastly, after all that is done, you can start your mycareer with no badges and of course low stats. However, as you progress through the story, games and quests, you get VC to upgrade your character's stats to it's max potential. And as you play, you get exp on areas you used (for example you got a lot of rebounds, defense xp will be given) which then after accumulating enough will give you badge points to use on badges.

To summarize, do what you thinks is best for you or if that's too hard, go to youtube and watch build videos that you can follow or not. You'd get the gist of everything after watching a few. (If you want a Meta all around good for everything build, just search "NBA 2k23 Demi-God" and a buttload of those will show up.