2008–09 Chicago Bulls season

The 2008–09 Chicago Bulls season is the 43rd season of the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

In the playoffs, the Bulls lost to the defending NBA champions, the Boston Celtics, in seven games in the First Round. The defending champion Celtics were also taken to a seven game series the prior season in the first round against the Atlanta Hawks. They finished with a 41–41 record for the second time in their past four seasons.

Key dates

• June 26: The 2008 NBA draft took place in New York City.
• July 1: The free agency period started.

Offseason

The Bulls re-signed Luol Deng to a 6-year $71 million contract on July 30, 2008. Ben Gordon signed a 1-year contract on October 2, 2008.

NBA draft

Roster

Regular season

The Bulls were having a meager year floating under .500 and on February 18, 2009 they made their first of several trades sending Andrés Nocioni, Drew Gooden, Cedric Simmons, Michael Ruffin to the Sacramento Kings for Brad Miller and John Salmons. Then on February 19, 2009, the NBA trade deadline, the Bulls traded Larry Hughes to the New York Knicks for Tim Thomas, Jerome James, and Anthony Roberson. Later that day the Bulls made the third trade in a span of less than 24 hours sending swingman Thabo Sefolosha to the Oklahoma City Thunder for a 2009 first round pick.

The trades brought a late-season push for the Bulls, which finally clinched a playoff berth on April 10, 2009, their fourth in the last five years. Then on April 13, 2009 they clinched the 7th place in the east by beating the Detroit Pistons and remained .5 game ahead of Philadelphia 76ers for the 6th spot with one game remaining. The Bulls though lost their last game to Toronto and the 76ers beat Cleveland, who did not play most of its best players. The Bulls finished 7th even though they tied Philadelphia at 41-41. The Bulls got matched up with a Garnett-less Boston in the first round of the playoffs.

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Game log

Playoffs

The Bulls-Celtics series became the first playoff series in NBA history to have 4 games go into overtime.

Player statistics

Season

*Statistics with the Chicago Bulls

Playoffs

Awards and records

Awards

• Derrick Rose = Rookie of the Year
• Derrick Rose won the All-Star Weekend Skills Challenge
• Derrick Rose was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team

Records

• 4—Overtime games played in this series
• 7—Overtime periods played in this series, more than any other NBA team has played in an entire postseason.

Transactions

Draft picks

The Bulls beat the odds and won the NBA Draft Lottery on May 20, 2008. The Bulls vaulted from the ninth spot to win the NBA Draft Lottery in Secaucus, NJ, and obtain the first pick in the June 26 NBA Draft. Chicago had a 1.7 percent chance of winning and were represented by Executive Vice President, Business Operations Steve Schanwald. The Heat had the best odds of securing the top selection and will pick second followed by the Timberwolves and Sonics.

Trades

Free agents

References

External links