Central Notes: Bogdanovic, Cunningham, Dosunmu, LaVine, Caruso

Bojan Bogdanovic is likely to soon regain his starting role with the Pistons, James Edwards III of The Athletic tweets. Bogdanovic, who could be a prime target at the trade deadline, made his season debut on Saturday after recovering from a calf strain and scored a team-high 22 points off the bench.

Pistons head coach Monty Williams said that when the team isn’t playing against two “bruisers” in the opposing lineup, it’s likely Bogdanovic will start at power forward when he gets in a rhythm. Against those bigger teams, Bogdanovic would start at small forward with Isaiah Stewart at power forward.

We have more from the Central Division:

• Even in the midst of the Pistons’ franchise-record 17-game losing streak, Cade Cunningham is showing an improved 3-point stroke, according to Edwards. Cunningham has made 35% of his attempts, compared to 31.4% during his rookie season. He has also converted at least half of his 3-point tries in five of the last seven games. “It was more of a legs thing for me,” Cunningham said of his rookie struggles. “I was playing a lot of minutes, a lot of minutes that I had never played in an NBA season before and had to adjust to stepping back to the NBA 3-point line.”
• With Zach LaVine sidelined due to a right foot ailment, Ayo Dosunmu has seen a minutes bump and he’s seized the opportunity, K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago notes. The Bulls have won two straight with Dosunmu averaging 14.5 points, 4.5 assists, and 3.0 rebounds in 36.0 minutes per game while shooting 70.6%. “I think you can see a different player right now than maybe he was a year ago,” coach Billy Donovan said. Dosunmu re-signed with Chicago on a three-year, $21MM deal this offseason.
• Speaking of LaVine, Donovan said on Monday the high-scoring wing “a lot better today than he was when he was first diagnosed.” LaVine is rehabbing and doing some individual on-court work. As for Alex Caruso, Donovan said “there’s nothing structurally wrong” with the left toe Caruso injured against New Orleans on Saturday, according to Johnson (Twitter links).