I disagree.
I think you have a level of really good players. Think hayward, tony parker, dirk, paul millsap, ibaka, mccollum, kemba walker, karl anthony towns, wiggins, etc. Then i think you have your low end all star type guys. Think jimmy butler, bosh, demar derozan, isiah thomas, kyle lowry, mike conley, klay thompson, tim duncan, kyrie irving (maybe he is in the star level even), etc. Then you have your star players. Think anthony davis, lillard, paul george, cp3, harden, westbrook, griffin, etc. Then you have superstars which is basically championship mvp type guys like kawhi, steph, lebron, and durant. Now you could definately have some guys get moved around a bit like maybe cp3 is a superstar, maybe current duncan (i was going off each player for this year only) should go down to only a really good player rather than low end all star and things like that.
But hayward doesn't belong with the star or superstar guys like the brow, dame dolla, cp3, westbrook, kawhi, steph, harden, etc etc.
we should always be trying to get one of those guys. Hayward will never be one of those guys imo. Maybe simmons will be though. You might be right that hayward is a top 30 guy in the league but that is not good enough for a teams #1 guy imo. We need to get a top 11 or 12 guy.
If we were in the playoffs then no matter who we matched up against the other team would have the best player in the game against us. If we played the spurs then leonard would be the best player in the series. If we played the warriors it would be curry. Thunder, durant. Clipps, cp3. Memphis, conley or gasol. Porland, lillard. dallas, Dirk (though i have hayward as being better than current dirk.. and dallas isn't a threat to anyone in the playoffs). Houston, harden.
Stars win playoff series. If hayward is our best and highest paid player then i dont see us winning any playoff series anytime soon cause we would always be playing a team in the playoffs with a bigger star on their team than hayward.