Bojan Bogdanovic left Detroit to join a now even-more-formidable contender in New York. Gordon Hayward is leaving Charlotte for one of the league’s best surprise stories this season in Oklahoma City. Doug McDermott was once traded by Indiana to San Antonio, and now, the Spurs have traded him back to the Pacers.

None of those shooters were making playoff plans when Thursday started.

Trade deadline day in the NBA gave them and plenty of other players an entirely new outlook, plus may have even reshaped the start of the playoff push as well.

The Knicks made some big moves with eyes on contending in the Eastern Conference, Philadelphia added a sharpshooter in Buddy Hield with hopes that it can get back on track when – or if – reigning MVP Joel Embiid returns from injury, while Phoenix and Dallas added frontcourt depth. The Suns landed Royce O’Neale from Brooklyn and the Mavericks are bringing in P.J. Washington from Charlotte.

Bogdanovic was averaging 20.2 points this season with the Pistons, who have the NBA’s worst record so far at 7-43. He and Alec Burks are headed to the Knicks, a team that entered Thursday a game out of the No. 2 spot in the East.

Hayward joins a Thunder team that started Thursday as the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. They’re 35-16, entering the day with tiebreaker edges over two other teams – Minnesota and Denver – with the same record and a half-game up on the Los Angeles Clippers at 34-16.

Hield left Indiana in a trade to the 76ers, and the Pacers seemed to try and replace his shooting by bringing back McDermott in a move with San Antonio. McDermott spent three seasons, 2018 through 2021, with Indiana, so the trade was a homecoming of sorts.

Another homecoming: Kelly Olynyk is headed back to his native Canada, the veteran forward getting acquired by Toronto in a deal with Utah.

Milwaukee made a couple of notable moves, one by landing Patrick Beverley from the 76ers and pairing him with Bucks guard Damian Lillard; those two exchanged some heated words during last season’s playoffs. The Bucks then sent center Robin Lopez to Sacramento; it is expected that Lopez will be waived by the Kings.

The Celtics made two minor trades, acquiring forward Jaden Springer from the 76ers for a second-round pick and sending guard Dalano Banton to the Trail Blazers for a second-round pick.

Springer, 21, was a first-round pick in 2021. He appeared in 32 games for the Sixers this season in a mostly limited role, but had started to see his playing time increase recently, averaging 8.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.2 steals in 22.1 minutes per game over his last five.

BULLS: Chicago star Zach LaVine had season-ending surgery on his right foot on Thursday. The two-time All-Star is expected to miss four to six months.

LaVine, who turns 29 in March, missed 17 games from Nov. 30 to Jan. 3 with inflammation in his right foot. Following a slow start to the season, Chicago went 10-7 while he was out.