Season Preview - Mark Blount

If you're a big sports fan, sometimes it's just nice to have all the information on your favorite squad right in front of you. Really, who wants to click through various websites for bios, coaches' analysis or stats?

If you're like us, you want to see a complete breakdown of each and every Wolves player, and you want to see it all on the same page. As such, here's our first player-by-player season preview: Mark Blount.

Scroll down for: Blount's Bio; Blount's Numbers; Coach J.B. Bickerstaff's analysis; Timberwolves.com analysis and Blount's Five Facts.

BLOUNT'S BIO
Center Mark Blount joined the Wolves in the January 2006 trade that also brought Ricky Davis to Minnesota. Last season, Blount averaged a career-high 12.3 ppg while topping 50% shooting from the field for the fourth-straight year.

Blount was originally a second-round selection of the Seattle Supersonics, and had stints with Denver and Boston. Last year in Minnesota was by far his most productive season, as he proved himself to be among the best-shooting big men in the NBA. He has a career average of 8.3 points, and has grabbed 2,480 rebounds and blocked 467 shots in his six years.

Blount goes by the nicknames "Blizz" or "Big Basic" and is originally from the Westchester, N.Y., area. He played high school basketball at Oak Hill (Va.) Academy, winning two H.S. national championships.

BLOUNT'S NUMBERS

Season	G	FGM-A	Pct.	FTM-A	Pct.	Reb	Ast	Pts	Blk
2005-06	81	373-734	.508	168-222	.757	4.5	1.2	11.3	0.9
2006-07	82	427-839	.509	147-195	.754	6.2	0.8	12.3	0.7
Career	199	453-882	.513	372-564	.660	6.9	0.7	8.3	0.9

COACH J.B. BICKERSTAFF SAYS...
Mark is a big guy who brings a lot of versatility. He has the ability to shoot the ball with range, and because he can spread the floor, he is going to complement the guys on our team that are good on the low block. His shooting give his teammates more room to operate down low.

TIMBERWOLVES.COM SAYS...
Be careful reading too much into how little Blount has played in the early preseason, because head coach Randy Wittman already knows what he can get from Blizz. Minnesota has post players that have the ability to block more shots (Theo Ratliff, Al Jefferson) and grab more boards (Jefferson, Craig Smith, Chris Richard), but Blount is clearly the best shooter of the Minnesota bigs.

BLOUNT'S FIVE FACTS
1) Put together a run of four consecutive 20+ scoring nights from Feb. 7-14.
2) As a rookie in 2000-01 he led Boston in blocks with 76, the most by any Celtics rookie since Wolves VP of basketball ops Kevin McHale (1980-81).
3) Blount's favorite sports besides basketball are baseball and golf.
4) Minnesota went 14-28 when Blount logged 30+ minutes and 18-22 when he played fewer than 30 minutes.
5) The March 20th, 2007, game at Phoenix was the 500th of Blount's career.

COMING SOON: COREY BREWER