In the NBA’s not-too-distant past, superstar power plays decided championships.

LeBron James took his talents to South Beach and won in 2012 and 2013 with the Miami Heat, then made a U-turn to the Cleveland Cavaliers to win again in 2016. Kevin Durant bolted for the Bay Area and won in 2017 and 2018 with the Golden State Warriors. Kawhi Leonard wanted out of San Antonio, landed on the Toronto Raptors and won in 2019. Anthony Davis elbowed his way to the Los Angeles Lakers and teamed with James to win in 2020.

The many successes of the player empowerment era, which commenced with James’s “Decision” in 2010, spawned so many copycats that the story has become significantly more complicated. Durant has struck out with the Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns. Leonard and Paul George have never reached the Finals with the Los Angeles Clippers. James Harden has nothing to show for his time with the Nets and Philadelphia 76ers. The Lakers were doomed by their misguided dalliance with Russell Westbrook.

Meanwhile, the past three NBA champions – the Milwaukee Bucks, Golden State Warriors and Denver Nuggets – claimed their Larry O’Brien trophies with homegrown superstars rather than mercenary headliners. This year’s title favorites – the Nuggets, Boston Celtics, Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder – were all built largely through internal development and targeted additions, rather than player-driven relocations.

Three years after their rewarding 2021 title, the Bucks suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of this trend. Hoping to reverse momentum following a first-round exit last year, Milwaukee fired coach Mike Budenholzer and struck a blockbuster deal for Damian Lillard, who had requested the Portland Trail Blazers trade him after two straight lottery trips. The wholesale overhaul didn’t work for Lillard or the Bucks, who were eliminated from the playoffs Thursday with a 120-98 Game 6 loss to the Indiana Pacers in the first round.

Despite a season of change, which also included the January dumping of Adrian Griffin, Budenholzer’s replacement, in favor of Doc Rivers, the Bucks have no meaningful achievement to show for their activity. With Antetokounmpo injured during last year’s playoffs, Milwaukee won just one playoff game. With Antetokounmpo suffering a calf injury right before this year’s playoffs and Lillard sidelined for part of the Pacers series with an Achilles’ injury, Milwaukee won just two playoff games.

That the Pacers did in the Bucks was especially galling: Preseason oddsmakers projected Milwaukee to win 16 more games than Indiana, and the fun-and-gun Pacers had the worst regular season defensive efficiency rating of the 16 teams to reach the playoffs. The Bucks were the first higher-seeded team to lose in the first round, and they did so after a season-long rivalry with the Pacers, who eliminated them from the in-season tournament semifinals and were famously on the wrong side of Antetokounmpo’s hunt for the game ball after he scored a career-high 64 points in December. Milwaukee lost its biggest matchup advantage, by far, when Antetokounmpo went down with his non-contact calf injury April 9, and Lillard, who endured a disappointing campaign from start to finish, couldn’t pick up the slack.

“It was a roller coaster of a year,” Lillard said. “But I think for me, personally, it was a year of growth more than anything. My first time being a part of a different organization other than the Trail Blazers, after 11 years. Picking up my life, being away from my family and my kids. Being traded so late into the summer. Playing for multiple coaches. Trying to find myself within a new dynamic, a new team, a new organization, playing with another superstar player and another great player in [Khris Middleton]. Just trying to find my space within that, with everything else happening all at the same time. It was a lot for me to fight through. I take a lot of pride in standing tall when things don’t go as planned.”

Though Lillard returned Thursday after missing the two previous games, it was far too little, way too late. The Bucks, who had preened and talked trash during a gutsy Game 5 win in Milwaukee on Tuesday, went out sad. Lillard scored 28 points but shot just 4-for-12 on three-pointers, and Patrick Beverley got into separate altercations with Pacers fans seated near the Bucks bench and a media member in the locker room.

This wasn’t at all what Lillard, 33, had in mind when he issued his trade request to the Blazers on July 1, right as free agency opened. Instead of being dealt to his preferred destination, the Heat, he waited in limbo for months as the Blazers tested his patience and the market. Off the court, Lillard repeatedly said he struggled being away from his family, which remained in Portland. He also attributed his down season – 24.3 points per game on 42.4 percent shooting – to his inability to fully train during the trade saga, which dragged on until shortly before training camp.

While his trade to Milwaukee initially looked like it would provide him an excellent chance at his first title, he never truly meshed with Antetokounmpo on offense, he contributed to the Bucks’ defensive shortcomings, and he couldn’t kick his game up a notch after Rivers’s midseason arrival. Antetokounmpo, Lillard and Middleton played only a handful of games together under Rivers, leaving Milwaukee to play catchup as other contenders were hitting their strides late in the season.

“We never really had a chance to create our offense we wanted to create,” Rivers said. “I’m going to do whatever I can for this franchise. I think we can win. Usually right after the year, you want to go take a break. I can’t wait to get started and get to [training] camp.”

To recap: Lillard asked for a trade that didn’t come immediately, landed on a team he didn’t expect, struggled to fit in once he got there and suffered an ill-timed injury that cut short his title chase before it began. Now, he must regroup for next season knowing that an expensive Bucks core that often looked too old and too slow can’t expect major offseason reinforcements. Life came at Lillard fast, but he insisted he is eager to give it another shot in Milwaukee next year.

“I’m extremely excited,” Lillard said, disputing recent reports of his unhappiness. “When things don’t go as planned, I don’t say a lot. People are going to try to make something of everything. There’s been some hard times. I haven’t denied that one time this year, basketball and personally. But it’s never been an issue with Milwaukee. … I understand the chatter and gossip come with the territory, and that criticism comes with being on a team with high expectations.”

It’s worth noting that all the principals involved in last summer’s trade saga wound up as short-term losers. The Blazers suffered through a miserable season and have yet to make much progress crafting a post-Lillard identity. The Heat, shorthanded because of Jimmy Butler’s knee injury, faces its own existential questions after getting bounced by the Celtics in the first round.

Similarly depressing lose-lose-lose scenarios played out in the wake of recent deals involving Bradley Beal and Harden. After a summer trade from the Washington Wizards to the Suns, Beal crashed and burned, the Wizards struggled through the worst season in franchise history and the Suns flamed out in the first round. After holding out to force his way from the 76ers to the Clippers, Harden’s new team is one loss away from a first-round exit and his old team was eliminated in six games by the New York Knicks on Thursday.

Let these trials be a warning to impatient superstars with wandering eyes and grand designs: Demanding a change of scenery doesn’t always result in greener pastures, and trying to take a championship shortcut can easily lead to a new wilderness instead of the promised land.