There’s no keeping Kwame Brown down

Before Friday night’s game, Detroit Pistons center Kwame Brown was working out with his teammates during a shooting drill.

When Brown clanked a shot off the backboard, something he did frequently during his two-plus seasons with the Lakers, Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw couldn’t help himself.

“That’s the Kwame I know,” Shaw shouted from the other end of the court.

And in many ways, it was the same old Brown -- the fun-loving player who shot bricks.

“My shot is all butter,” Brown said.

Brown started his second game of the season against the Lakers at Staples Center and had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Brown signed with the Lakers as a free agent in 2005, but he never realized his potential and the Lakers traded him to Memphis as apart of a five-player that helped the team land Pau Gasol.

“A trade comes up like that with Gasol on the board, even if I’m injured, a player like that, they might still have traded me,” Brown said. “I can’t cry about it.”

Brown, who signed a two-year, $8-million contract with the Pistons this summer, has been given another opportunity.

He also was given a chance to start against his former teammates for the first time since the trade; Brown came back last season when the Lakers played Memphis, but he didn’t play.

“I think it’s something that I’ve got to keep earning,” Brown said about starting. “I’m in a great situation.”

Pistons Coach Michael Curry wants the same thing out of Brown that Lakers Coach Phil Jackson did.

“We’re not asking Kwame to come in and be a primary scorer for us,” Curry said. “All we want is for him to use his big body, take up space inside, be a presence for us defensively and be able to finish around the basket for us.”

Rebound guys

The Lakers are the top rebounding team in the league, but it’s not enough for Jackson.

“We can be better, but we’re doing OK right now,” he said. “We are doing better than we were last year. I thought most of the playoffs, we really struggled to maintain the balance in rebounding.”

The Lakers were averaging 49.3 rebounds a game before Friday’s game. The second-best average was Philadelphia’s 47.5 a game.

The Lakers outrebounded the Pistons, 43-42, on Friday.

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Times staff writer Mike Bresnahan contributed to this report.

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broderick.turner@latimes.com