Chris Finch indicates Timberwolves will target NBA-ready players in draft

Of the 18 known players who have worked out for the Timberwolves, 14 of them will be 22 or older when the 2024-25 NBA season begins.

May 30, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch at a press conference before game five of the western conference finals for the 2024 NBA playoffs against the Dallas Mavericks at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports | Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Of the 18 known NBA draft prospects that have worked out for the Timberwolves, 14 of them will be 22 years old or older by the time the 2024-25 NBA season begins.

It's a good indicator that Minnesota is looking to use its picks – Nos. 27 and 37 – in this month's draft to take a player who is ready to contribute right away as a rookie. We can now go one step further and toss "indicator" aside and say it is a fact that the Timberwolves want NBA-ready talent in the draft.

"It's a pretty level draft, I don't think there's a lot of franchise-changing guys in it. But I do believe there's a lot of older players that can help you maybe right away," Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch said Thursday during an interview on FM 100.3 KFAN. "You're going to have guys a little bit more ready to come in, which is great for us because that's really what we need. We kind of have our main guys set so we just need guys to come in with some physical maturity and some emotional maturity because they've been through it enough. They can come in and help us."

Finch saying the Wolves "kind of have our main guys set" is a good indicator that Minnesota plans to run it back next season with a core featuring Mike Conley, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert, Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

Here are the 18 players that the Wolves have had in for workouts and their respective ages when the 2024-25 NBA season begins.

Player	Age when 2024-25 season starts
Sy Chatman (Buffalo)	23
Enrique Freeman (Akron)	23
Pelle Larsson (Arizona)	23
KJ Simpson (Colorado)	21
Justin Webster (UNLV)	23
Moses Wood (Washington)	25
Melvin Ajinca (France)	19
Jalen Bridges (Baylor)	23
Tristan Enaruna (Cleveland State)	23
Ajay Mitchell (UC Santa Barbara)	22
Jonathan Mogbo (San Francisco)	22
Baylor Scheierman (Creighton)	23
Isaiah Crawford (Louisiana Tech)	22
Thierry Darlan (G League Ignite)	20
Aaron Estrada (Alabama)	23
A.J. Johnson (Illawarra Hawks)	19
Riley Minix (Morehead State)	23
Jaylen Wells (Washington State)	21

The draft will be held June 26-27 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.