I know this may sound silly to some, but even if Hayward does make an All-NBA team, is Utah definitely willing to pay him the 'super-max'? I like Hayward as much as the next guy (and especially like him since he is a realistic target for the Cs this off-season), but $207M (is that right??) is a lot to commit to a player of his caliber.
Utah isn't exactly swimming in revenue and they have some decisions to make regarding player contracts. Hayward may seem like a slam dunk, but it's possible that just may be too much money for them to commit.
Yes, Utah would give him the most they can. Most of their contracts expire after the 2017-2018 season, so by the time they can give Hayward such an offer, they'll have a pretty clean cap and should be able to manage things.
If Utah doesn't think they'll offer him the deal if eligible, they should trade Hayward today.
Cousins situation shows us that of small-market teams could potentially get cold feet at the idea of offering a super-max to anyone short of a Lebron/Durant/Curry level slam dunk superstar. Hayward is a good player, but $200m over five years tied up in him is not a trivial investment.
The cold feet of Sacramento comes from multiple places:
1) They're ridiculously fickle, and have had no long-term organizational plan. Committing to a player for 6 years was not something they could handle.
2) What are they committing to? This is a team that hasn't had a winning record in many years, and pretty much had no long-term pieces aside from Cousins.
Utah, meanwhile, has been focused on building from within for quite some time -- certainly since they traded Deron. They have organizational stability and direction. They've already locked up another cornerstone player in Gobert for four more years after this one. They've got some other young players who are coming around, like Hood and Lyles. And they're a team that has a real chance at home court advantage for the first round of the playoffs. Do they have Golden State's future in front of them? Likely not. But could they be a team that is annually in the top half of the West over the life of Hayward's next deal? Absolutely. And with smart roster management, they can afford to pay him. It will be more difficult for them than some other teams, but it's already more difficult, and you don't give up just because it's not easy.