I know a lot of people here want to "bake the cake" which, as far as I understand, is essentially not making any significant additions & allowing the team to develop internally. While I don't necessarily disagree with this strategy in specific situations, I see this approach as a major risk due to the fact that one of our "main ingredients" is a year away from potentially expiring.
If we intend to re-sign Hayward & move forward with him as a centerpiece of this team (which appears highly likely), Jimmy Butler is exactly the type of proven, young star that this team should allocate it's resources to acquiring (although I'm not convinced that we have the necessary assets to do so without turning the trade into a lateral move, which would likely defeat the purpose).
Although Hayward is much closer to being on the same level as Butler than the common NBA fan gives him credit, due to contract purposes I would trade him straight up for Butler (as well as add a sweetener to it such as Burks, #12, or future 1sts) but I don't see why CHI would have any incentive to make such a trade.
The only way I can envision them moving on from Butler is if the decided to completely rebuild, in which case I imagine it would require some a combination Burks/Hood/Lyles/#12/future 1st (or possibly even Exum). Although that would likely be an overpay on our end, I don't see CHI trading him unless they can get a plethora of young controllable talent along with multiple future draft picks.
Although I would be extremely hesitant (& unlikely) to part with that much talent (depending on what the package ended up ultimately being) it's hard not to dream about what a starting lineup of Exum/Butler/Hayward/Favors/Gobert could accomplish with a competent bench behind it (& we would certainly have enough cap room to build a bench from FA).
On the flip side, if we decide not to pursuit a trade for an accomplished star to add to Hayward, I feel that it would be a mistake to allow our chances to retain Hayward to be dictated by Exum's ability to impact the team similarly to how he did pre-injury along with the assumption that our core will remain healthy enough to compete for a top 4/5 seed in the west (which is what I assume it would take to convince Hayward to stay)
Rather than allowing the "cake to continue baking" in a season that will likely determine the direction of our franchise for the next 5+ years, I hope management has the foresight & fortitude to either "purchase that high-end ingredient that could potentially transform our current cake into an award winning baked good" or "sell off the ingredient that appears to be potentially reaching It's expiration date for several other ingredients that, while not quite at the quality of the current ingredient, have the potential to eventually reach or surpass it due to it's longer shelf-life & potential to bloom into a high-end product".
TLDR: Too long to recap, don't bother reading
