Chris Finch talks Timberwolves, KAT at youth basketball academy

EAGAN (FOX 9) - Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch was at the Eagan Community Center Monday morning as the Wolves and Lynx held their annual youth basketball academy.

The academy holds youth clinics for kids in grades 3-6 at all skill levels throughout Minnesota from June through August. In addition to on-court skill work, they focus on individual development, teamwork and leadership away from basketball.

After Monday’s session, Finch took some questions from a few campers.

"I got asked everything from rating the D-Lo trade to how hard is it to coach. It’s all fun, you never know what they’re going to ask, that’s the exciting part of it," Finch said.

Finch also met with reporters Monday, and talked about where things are at with the Timberwolves after their second straight early playoff exit. The team that knocked them out, the Denver Nuggets, could win the NBA Finals Monday night. 

The NBA Draft is 10 days away, and the Timberwolves currently don’t have a first round pick after trading it in the offseason to get Rudy Gobert. Finch was asked if any current player is untouchable leading up to June 22.

"I think we definitely have a few untouchables but as you know in this business, nothing is for sure," Finch sad.

That’s after there’s been some speculation on the future of Karl-Anthony Towns in Minnesota. We’ll never know, but it would be interesting to see how the Timberwolves’ season would’ve ended had Towns not missed more than 50 games with a calf injury. It largely prevented seeing what a trio of Towns, Gobert and Anthony Edwards could look like.

They likely wouldn’t have been the No. 8 seed, and likely would’ve had a better match-up to get out of the first round of the Western Conference Playoffs. While Finch wasn’t directly asked about Towns, he sure made it sound like the star power forward isn’t going anywhere.

"We’ve got to all stay healthy. We know KAT missed 50-some games, so that’s the biggest piece because that kind of lays at the heart of how it all works best. The most important is that going into next season, we learned enough to have a way better starting point about what we feel will work and what won’t work, and some of the challenges that lie in between all that," Finch said. "I don’t think we’re that far off, but we still don’t have that much margin for error."