It depends on a lot of factors.  How good do you envision your trainee eventually becoming?  Are you planning on training him every week?  Will you be training him on a 1 position basis a lot (e.g. PG passing or pressure)?
Without knowing the answers to those questions, I can only generalize.  If you are training a guard whom you expect to be a mainstay in your starting lineup for years to come, I would say that you should go with star potential or higher.  That would give you a max salary of over 30k.
For a big man, you'll need All-Star potential at a minimum.  For SF, you might be able to squeak by with a starter (potential), but star would be better.