I voted yes and here's why: We are a fundamentally different team with a healthy Hayward in the starting lineup.
Our preferred lineup strategy, with everyone healthy, is to deploy a 1-guard, 3-wing, 1-big lineup where by 'wing' I mean "small forward sized wing". That lineup presents an offensive match up nightmare (because at least one of the wings will have a matchup advantage on either a big or a small) and switches everything on defense.
Our standard starting 5 of Kemba+Jaylen+Gordon+Jayson+Theis posted a big phat +11.4 Net Rating -- and that includes both regular season AND playoffs, with a hobbled Hayward. That lineup featured a smoking hot 60.5% TS%.
BUT ... we played most of the playoffs without Gordon and the few games we had him he clearly was not healthy. Further, we also were missing both Romeo and Javonte'. This means, out of our normal stable of six "SF-sized wings" we had only Jaylen, Jayson and ... Semi healthy. This had multiple negative consequences.
First off, it meant that Jaylen and Jayson had to play a ton of minutes -- including in games that were not close. Both Jays seemed to be running out of gas by the end of the MIA series.
Second of all, it meant that instead of having 3 guys who were all 'small forward' sized on the floor along with a big and only one 'small', instead, we had to make up Hayward's minutes with Brad Wanamaker and more minutes for Marcus Smart. Smart is big for a guard, but he's not to be confused with a small forward. He is a guard. And Wanamaker is a guard.
So, unfortunately, we played most of the playoffs with a 2-guard, 2-wing, 1-big lineup.
Our starting lineup in the playoffs was Kemba+Smart+Jaylen+Jayson+Theis. That lineup had a NetRtg of +2.4 and scoring efficiency of just 54.6% TS% (again, includes both regular season & playoffs).
That's just a fundamentally different -- and less effective -- starting lineup.
I've watched the NBA for a long time. And one thing that is constant is that starting lineups are the dominant factor in winning titles. Bench depth can win a game or two in a deep playoff run. But it is the strength of the starting lineup that wins most of them and the net ratings of starting lineups is a powerful predictor of playoff success.
So for us to drop a net -9.0 points off our starting lineup's Net Rating between what we used in the regular season and what we used in the playoffs was, well a huge handicap.
So, yeah, I can't help but feel pretty strongly that if we had been luckier and been fully healthy through the playoffs, that we most likely would have performed MUCH better.