If this team had Dennis Rodman instead of Marcus Smart, we would be considered contenders right now, nevermind next year when Hayward returns.
Which Rodman? The early version who ran the floor and played amazing defense or the later one who only cared about padding his rebound numbers and did not want to defend jump shooters at all since they would sacrifice the said numbers? If it's the latter, I would really question how he would defend the stretch 4's of today. Not because he couldn't, but because his rebounding stats would suffer immensely.
First, your opinion of Rodman in his Spurs and Bulls days doesn't seem to fit with my memory of the defensive player Rodman was in those days. Rodman could and would defend 1-5 for his whole career in a era when switching on defense just didn't happen all that often. It was man on man and Rodman mostly guarded 4s in an era where the stretch 4 didn't really exist.
2nd, even if your recollection of Rodman is reality and mine isn't I would take either Rodman version in the starting lineup over Baynes. Great defense and 15 rebounds a game? Yeah, I will take that.
Yeah, that's not accurate.
Detroit - A truly amazing perimeter defender. He would definitely be able to switch defensively and was a great athlete who ran the lanes like a gazelle and finish with some strong dunks. Towards the end of the Pistons era, the issues began to creep up. He wasn't defending the perimeter like before and became obsessed with his rebounding. This was really apparent in the year without Daly.
San Antonio - More obsession with padding his numbers. It was pretty disfunctional there to the point that they had to get Haley to try to keep him under wraps. Again, it's not because he couldn't defend the perimeter, but rather he didn't want to.
Chicago - People forget, but getting him was not a no-brainer. He had so many issues in SA because of his off-court antics and on-court selfishness, that there was serious concern if it would work out. Rodman gave more effort on the perimeter than the previous few seasons, but at this point he had also lost a step and was nowhere near the defender he was in Detroit. That said, he was an incredible post-defender during this time.
I don't know how he would make a similar impact in today's NBA if he was just relegated to the later year's version. Sure he would gobble up rebounds, but he would be such an offensive liability and it would be emphasized with today's game that's heavily predicated on spacing.