The 2025 Coach of the Year in the NBA has been revealed. Kenny Atkinson of the Cleveland Cavaliers was awarded the honor earlier today while he was making an appearance on Inside the NBA. The 57-year-old was then asked a very serious question by Shaquille O’Neal: How would he scheme up a gameplan if he had Shaq and Charles Barkley on his team?
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The league has not seen two dominant big men on a team since the David Robinson/Tim Duncan or Alonzo Mourning/Shaq days. It makes sense. The game has drastically changed. Shooting from behind the arc and running the pick & roll at a high volume is where teams live or die now in the NBA. The big man does still play a role, but even he must utilize more than just that trait.
Look at the NBA’s current best player, Nikola Jokic. He is not a traditional big man. The Joker is just as likely to shoot the tre as he is to back someone in the post. The same can be said for Karl Anthony-Towns, whose behind-the-arc prowess is why he has seen success in Minnesota and New York.
That doesn’t mean that Atkinson didn’t have a good answer. “You got to play to your players strengths,” stated Atkinson. “I’d go double-post. Each of you on a different block, and then we’d figure it out from there.” This seemed to impress The Diesel, who seemed to suggest that going back to the post would have been his preference.
Funnily enough, Barkley was more built for the modern NBA than his own era. He was only 6’5″, yet due to his stocky size he was trusted into the frontcourt. It was more than successful. Chuck was an 11-time All-Star and the league’s MVP in 1993. Had he not faced Michael Jordan in the finals, he may have been able to call himself an NBA Champion.
How would Chuck and Shaq do on a team together?
Barkley and Shaq could have made a formidable duo on the basketball court. Chuck’s high-energy rebounding and face-up scoring would have complemented Shaq’s dominant low-post presence.
Offensively, Barkley could space the floor more than traditional power forwards of his time, giving Shaq room to operate. Defensively, neither was a lockdown stopper, but their physicality and toughness would have challenged opponents.
Throughout their careers, both Hall of Famers played with a variety of big men with mixed results. Barkley spent time next to Hakeem Olajuwon in Houston and Moses Malone in Philadelphia, but those pairings came either too early or too late to reach their full potential.
Shaq had better success with fellow bigs like Horace Grant in Orlando and later with Alonzo Mourning in Miami, where they both helped the Heat win a title in 2006. The key factor in all these pairings was timing. The Diesel got a little luckier than Barkley, yet there were far more dominant duos.
Regardless, Shaq and Chuck on the court in their prime is nothing compared to their broadcasting chemistry. Are they sometimes shooting nonsense from the hip? Yes, but that doesn’t mean it’s not vastly entertaining.
