How much would it cost to steal John Collins from the Atlanta Hawks?

What's the magic number when it comes to an offer to John Collins?

Whether you think he's worth it or not, we must start with the maximum amount it's possible to offer John Collins. For a player with his amount of NBA experience, he can't make more than $28.1 million with his next contract.

The Spurs could easily afford to make such an offer to Collins and still have money left over to make other moves, but whether they should is still up for debate.

I turned to long-time Project Spurs writer and capologist Paul Garcia for his thoughts on what it might take for San Antonio to poach Collins:

"The Hawks will have the MLE whether he signs between $22 (offered extension) and $28.1 million (max) per season," said Paul. "I’m not sure the Hawks have a limit to how much they’re willing to match. If they don’t match, they’d have $15 million in cap space to work with. So I’m assuming an offer sheet could be in the $24-25 million per season range to see if Atlanta matches."

An offer of $24-25 million would certainly be an increase from the amount Collins reportedly rejected from the Hawks. It also wouldn't quite be the max, allowing the Spurs to still save some in their pursuit of completing their rebuild.

Atlanta would have to be absolutely certain that John is the power forward of their long-term future to match such a figure, so it would definitely put pressure on them.

Does everything Collins offers make him worth such an offer sheet this summer? That's a subject for another time. For now, play close attention to how the Hawks' postseason plays out, as it could affect their decision to stick with or part ways with their 2017 first-round pick.