Elijah Minnie is exceptionally athletic. We've seen Stephan Hawkins pull off some impressive dunks and what-not in warm-ups and occasionally in a game. Minnie tops Hawkins, especially with putback dunks.
He's a Division I prospect, for sure.
From my personal standpoint, two things would concern me about him. These are not true red flags, but any coaching staff would have to have these questions answered to their satisfaction.
1. Competition level. Lincoln Park is a Class A school, the smallest it gets in Pennsylvania. Now, Lincoln Park schedules up when it can, even playing Quad-A schools. But that's not all season long. And there aren't many 6-8 guys anywhere in the state, especially in the Western half. So I'm sure most of the true judgement on him would be from AAU games. I've gotten the impression that RMU's staff scouts heavily at AAU games, but likes seeing their scouted players play in a high school environment a couple times to gauge how they work within a more team-oriented construct.
2. Willingness to put defense first. Because it doesn't have boundaries as a charter school, Lincoln Park pulls in students from all over the region. It has multiple Division I players (sophomore Maverick Rowan is already committed to Pitt). They're often playing with a lead because they're just physically better than everyone else. So I would be very curious to see how he would adjust to a system like Andy Toole's, where defense is the priority and the offense is an equal opportunity, movement based feature.
If I'm a coach, those are options I want answered. Outside of that, in terms of offers and true opportunity, he is at RMU's level. A larger school that is struggling (Temple, Virginia Tech) could also pick him up, as could other mid-majors. But I don't know how serious the interest is overall. I haven't seen Minnie at any RMU games. Considering the close proximity, one would think he'd stop by if there was serious interest.
