Through five games this season, Kobe Bryant is the leading scorer in the NBA with 27.6 points per game, but new Los Angeles Lakers head coach Byron Scott wants to see his team balance out the score sheet a little more.
Bryant has always loved shooting the ball and he is the active leader in the NBA with 24,496 field goal attempts, but he is also shooting just 40.2 percent from the field thus far this season.
While an argument could be made that Bryant may not have enough talented scorers to pass the ball to, Scott believes that some of his teammates should help the five-time NBA champion carry the scoring load.
"I think there was a timeout last game where I pointed at Kobe and I said, 'I know how great this guy is, but you guys have got to play basketball,'" Scott said after the team's practice Thursday, according to ESPN Los Angeles. "'You can't look at him every single time and try to give him the ball. You've got to take shots that are there. You can't pass up shots."
Coming off of a franchise-worst 27-55 finish to the 2013-14 season that saw Los Angeles miss the playoffs for the first time since 2005, the Lakers have limped to an 0-5 start under the direction of Scott this season.
Scott took over for Mike D'Antoni after he resigned following the conclusion of the dreadful 2013-14 campaign.
Scott said that the rest of the Lakers can't be afraid to shoot the ball when they have solid scoring opportunities.
"They can't be afraid to fail," Scott said of Bryant's teammates. "That's the biggest thing. You've just got to be able to go out there and play."
Scott also said that guys have to take advantage of Bryant giving them opportunities to score while Bryant said he tries to get his teammates involved more in the offense.
"Well, I think use a lot of guys, [Carlos] Boozer and Jeremy Lin, to create opportunities," Bryant said, "which means running [the offense] through them a lot and moving me off the ball and getting picks off the ball, as opposed to me initiating the offense and then controlling everything from there."
The Lakers are off to their worst start since 1957 and the team next hosts the Charlotte Hornets at the Staples Center on Sunday. Scott hopes a new offensive philosophy can net the team its first win of the season.
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