2008–09 Oklahoma City Thunder season

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2008–09 Oklahoma City Thunder season
Head coach
General managerSam Presti
OwnersProfessional Basketball Club LLC
ArenaFord Center
Results
Record23–59 (.280)
PlaceDivision: 5th (Northwest)
Conference: 13th (Western)
Playoff finishDid not qualify
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com
Local media
Television
  • KSBI
  • Fox Sports Oklahoma
Radio
< 2007–08 2009–10 >

The Oklahoma City Thunder played its inaugural season in the 2008–09 NBA season. It was the team's 1st season in Oklahoma City since the Seattle SuperSonics relocation was approved by league owners prior to settling a lawsuit. The team played at the Ford Center.

Oklahoma City hosted the New Orleans Hornets for two seasons, due to Hurricane Katrina's devastation along the Gulf Coast in August 2005.

Until 2021, this represents the Thunder's last losing season.

Key dates[]

  • June 26: The 2008 NBA draft took place in New York City.
  • July 1: The free agency period started.
  • July 2: The Seattle SuperSonics announced their immediate relocation to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
  • September 3 The team announces name and colors.
  • October 8 The Oklahoma City Thunder took the court for the first time in an 88–82[1] preseason loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Billings, Montana.
  • October 29 The Oklahoma City Thunder played their first regular season game ever, hosting the Milwaukee Bucks.
  • November 2 The Oklahoma City Thunder get their first win as an NBA franchise.
  • November 22 P. J. Carlesimo is fired and replaced on an interim basis by Scott Brooks.
  • November 28 The Thunder tie the franchise record for consecutive games lost at 14 with a 103–105 loss to the Timberwolves.
  • November 29 Oklahoma City snaps 14-game losing streak.
  • January 21 Jeff Green shoots Thunder's first buzzer beater to beat the Golden State Warriors 122–121.
  • February 14 Kevin Durant wins All-Star Break H.O.R.S.E competition.
  • April 15 The Thunder won over Los Angeles Clippers 126–85 to end 23-59 in their first season.
  • April 15 Scott Brooks is named full-time coach of Thunder.

Offseason[]

  • Oklahoma City rookies and other young professionals played in the first game of the Orlando summer league. Oklahoma City lost its summer league opener to the Indiana Pacers rookies by a score of 95-78. Earl Calloway scored 16 points and Andre Emmett had 15 for the Pacers, who scored the game's first eight points and never trailed.[2] Jeff Green took the first shot in Oklahoma City's history and it bounced off the rim 43 seconds after tipoff. The first basket came 2:15 into the first quarter by D.J. White, who was drafted by Detroit, traded to Seattle and played in Oklahoma City.[2]
  • The Oklahoma City franchise released its season-ticket prices on Thursday, August 14. The franchise announced that there will be 3,400 seats available at $10 per game.[3]
    • On average, ticket prices were about 36 per cent higher than they were for the 2007–08 Seattle SuperSonics season. The announcement also stated that the average ticket price would be US$47.51 while Seattle's average ticket price last season was $35.[3] While last year's NBA average ticket price at $48.83, Oklahoma City's rates below the league average.
    • Season tickets went on sale on Monday, September 8. Chairman Clay Bennett announced that the last of the 13,000 season tickets available were sold on Friday, September 12, and the team started a waiting list for season tickets.[4]

Pre-season[]

  • The Oklahoma City Thunder made their debut in an 88-82 preseason loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on October 8, 2008.

First pre-season game[]

October 8, 2008
Oklahoma City Thunder 82, Minnesota Timberwolves 88
Scoring by quarter: 13–24, 28–16, 22–20, 19–28
Pts: Damien Wilkins 19
Rebs: Kevin Durant, Johan Petro 7 each
Asts: Earl Watson 4		 Pts: Rashad McCants 15
Rebs: Al Jefferson 9
Asts: Mike Miller 5
Rimrock Auto Arena, Billings
Attendance: 3,817
Referees: Leroy Richardson, ,
  • Kevin Durant took and made the first shot in Oklahoma City history.
  • The Thunder had their home debut on October 14, 2008 against the Los Angeles Clippers.[5]

Draft picks[]

Main article: 2008 NBA draft

The 2008 NBA Draft was the final time that the Seattle SuperSonics made an NBA Draft appearance, as well as the final time that the SuperSonics appeared in official media publications. In early July, the franchise relocated to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and was renamed the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder made their first NBA Draft appearance in 2009.[6]

Round Pick Player Position Nationality College/Team
1 4 Russell Westbrook PG  United States UCLA
1 24 Serge Ibaka PF  Republic of the Congo CB L'Hospitalet
2 32 Walter Sharpe SF  United States UAB
2 46 Trent Plaisted [a](from Portland as part of the Sebastian Telfair trade via Boston as part of the Ray Allen trade, traded to Detroit) PF  United States BYU Jr.
2 50 DeVon Hardin PF  United States California
2 56 Sasha Kaun C  Russia Kansas

Roster[]

2008–09 Oklahoma City Thunder roster
Players Coaches
Pos. No. Name Height Weight DOB (YYYY-MM-DD) From
PG 8 Atkins, Chucky 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) 160 lb (73 kg) 1974-08-14 South Florida
C 4 Collison, Nick 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 255 lb (116 kg) 1980-10-26 Kansas
SF 35 Durant, Kevin 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 215 lb (98 kg) 1988-09-29 Texas
PF 22 Green, Jeff 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 235 lb (107 kg) 1986-08-28 Georgetown
PF 51 Hill, Steven 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 248 lb (112 kg) 1985-11-14 Arkansas
C 12 Krstić, Nenad 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 240 lb (109 kg) 1983-07-25 Serbia
PG 14 Livingston, Shaun 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 182 lb (83 kg) 1985-09-11 Peoria Central (IL)
SG 34 Mason, Desmond 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 224 lb (102 kg) 1977-10-11 Oklahoma State
PF 9 Rose, Malik 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 250 lb (113 kg) 1974-11-23 Drexel
SG 2 Sefolosha, Thabo 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 215 lb (98 kg) 1984-05-02 Switzerland
C 31 Swift, Robert 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 245 lb (111 kg) 1985-12-03 Bakersfield HS (CA)
PG 25 Watson, Earl 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 195 lb (88 kg) 1979-06-12 UCLA
SG 5 Weaver, Kyle 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 201 lb (91 kg) 1986-02-18 Washington State
PG 0 Westbrook, Russell 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 187 lb (85 kg) 1988-11-12 UCLA
PF 3 White, D. J. 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 251 lb (114 kg) 1986-08-31 Indiana
C 54 Wilcox, Chris 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 221 lb (100 kg) 1982-09-03 Maryland
SG 21 Wilkins, Damien 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 225 lb (102 kg) 1980-01-11 Georgia
Head coach
Assistant coach(es)
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • (DP) Unsigned draft pick
  • (FA) Free agent
  • (S) Suspended
  • Injured Injured

Roster
Last transaction: April 4, 2009

Regular season[]

The Ford Center, which seats 19,599 for basketball, was built in 2002 and has received public funding for renovation.[7]

Standings[]

Northwest Division W L PCT GB Home Road Div GP
y–Denver Nuggets 54 28 .659 — 33–8 21–20 12–4 82
x–Portland Trail Blazers 54 28 .659 — 34–7 20–21 11–5 82
x–Utah Jazz 48 34 .585 6 33–8 15–26 10–6 82
Minnesota Timberwolves 24 58 .293 30 11–30 13–28 3–13 82
Oklahoma City Thunder 23 59 .280 31 15–26 8–33 4–12 82
# Western Conference
Team W L PCT GB
1 c-Los Angeles Lakers 65 17 .793 —
2 y-Denver Nuggets 54 28 .659 11
3 y-San Antonio Spurs 54 28 .659 11
4 x-Portland Trail Blazers 54 28 .659 11
5 x-Houston Rockets 53 29 .646 12
6 x-Dallas Mavericks 50 32 .610 15
7 x-New Orleans Hornets 49 33 .598 16
8 x-Utah Jazz 48 34 .585 17
9 Phoenix Suns 46 36 .561 19
10 Golden State Warriors 29 53 .354 36
11 Minnesota Timberwolves 24 58 .293 41
12 Memphis Grizzlies 24 58 .293 41
13 Oklahoma City Thunder 23 59 .280 42
14 Los Angeles Clippers 19 63 .232 46
15 Sacramento Kings 17 65 .207 48

Game log[]

2008–09 game log
October: 0–1 (Home: 0–1; Road: 0–0)
November: 2–15 (Home: 1–8; Road: 1–7)
December: 2–13 (Home: 2–5; Road: 0–8)
January: 7–7 (Home: 5–3; Road: 2–4)
February: 3–9 (Home: 2–3; Road: 1–6)
March: 7–8 (Home: 4–3; Road: 3–5)
April: 2–6 (Home: 1–3; Road: 1–3)
2008–09 season schedule

Player statistics[]

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game

Season[]

Player GP GS MPG FG% 3FG% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
Chucky Atkins* 18 0 16.6 .291 .250 .917 1.0 1.7 0.4 0.1 3.9
Nick Collison 71 40 25.8 .568 .000 .721 6.9 0.9 0.7 0.7 8.2
Kevin Durant 74 74 39.0 .476 .422 .863 6.5 2.8 1.3 0.7 25.3
Jeff Green 78 78 36.8 .446 .389 .788 6.7 2.0 1.0 0.4 16.5
Steven Hill 1 0 2.0 1.000 .000 .000 3.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.0
Nenad Krstić 46 29 24.8 .469 .000 .797 5.5 0.6 0.5 1.1 9.7
Shaun Livingston 8 1 23.8 .538 .000 1.000 3.3 2.0 0.6 0.3 7.8
Desmond Mason* 39 19 27.3 .435 .000 .541 4.0 1.2 0.4 0.8 7.5
Johan Petro* 22 12 15.5 .407 .000 .667 4.3 0.3 0.7 0.2 4.6
Malik Rose* 20 0 15.7 .378 .000 .800 3.3 1.3 0.5 0.1 5.0
Thabo Sefolosha* 23 22 31.1 .417 .243 .833 5.2 2.0 1.7 1.1 8.5
Mouhamed Sene* 5 0 4.6 .714 .000 .778 1.8 0.0 0.2 0.4 3.4
Joe Smith* 36 3 19.2 .454 .500 .704 4.5 0.7 0.3 0.7 6.6
Robert Swift 26 10 13.2 .521 .000 .750 3.4 0.3 0.2 0.7 3.3
Earl Watson 68 18 26.1 .384 .235 .755 2.7 5.8 0.7 0.2 6.6
Kyle Weaver 56 19 20.8 .459 .344 .707 2.3 1.8 0.8 0.4 5.3
Russell Westbrook 82 65 32.5 .398 .271 .815 4.9 5.3 1.3 0.2 15.3
D. J. White 7 0 18.6 .520 .000 .769 4.6 0.9 0.4 0.7 8.9
Chris Wilcox* 37 6 19.4 .485 .000 .598 5.3 0.9 0.5 0.3 8.4
Damien Wilkins 41 14 15.5 .362 .375 .804 1.7 0.9 0.5 0.2 5.3

* Statistics with Oklahoma City.

Awards and records[]

Awards[]

Week/Month[]

  • Russell Westbrook was named Western Conference rookie of the month in December and February.[8][9]

All-Star[]

  • Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green and Kevin Durant played in the Rookie Challenge, where Durant was named MVP.
  • Kevin Durant won the H–O–R–S–E Competition.

Season[]

  • Russell Westbrook was selected to the All-Rookie 1st team.

Records[]

Transactions[]

Trades[]

August 12, 2008
 To Charlotte Bobcats
2nd Round Selection, 2009 NBA draft 		To Oklahoma City Thunder
Kyle Weaver[10]
August 13, 2008
 To Milwaukee Bucks
Luke Ridnour, Adrian Griffin 		To Oklahoma City Thunder
Desmond Mason[11]
August 13, 2008
 To Milwaukee Bucks
Damon Jones 		To Cleveland Cavaliers
Mo Williams 		To Oklahoma City Thunder
Joe Smith
February 19, 2009
 To New York Knicks
Chris Wilcox 		To Oklahoma City Thunder
Malik Rose[12]
February 19, 2009
 To Chicago Bulls
1st Round Selection, 2009 NBA draft 		To Oklahoma City Thunder
Thabo Sefolosha

Free agents[]

Additions[]

Subtractions[]

Player Date left New team
Mouhamed Sene February 19

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Sites, Phil (October 8, 2008). "T'Wolves Play Spoiler". Billings Gazette. Retrieved October 9, 2008.[dead link]
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b CANOE – SLAM! Sports – Basketball – NBA: Former SuperSonics starting over[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 16, 2008. Retrieved August 16, 2008.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ "Waiting list begun for Oklahoma City season tickets". ESPN. Associated Press. September 13, 2008. Archived from the original on September 15, 2008. Retrieved September 13, 2008.
  5. ^ Oklahoma City NBA team to face hectic pace in preseason
  6. ^ Pian Chan, Sharon (July 2, 2008). "Sonics, city reach settlement". Seattle Times. Archived from the original on 3 July 2008. Retrieved July 2, 2008.
  7. ^ "Ford Center / Oklahoma City, Oklahoma". Arena Digest. March 2008. Archived from the original on May 12, 2008. Retrieved May 5, 2008.
  8. ^ Bulls' Rose, Thunder's Westbrook named Rookies of the Month Archived January 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, NBA.com, January 2, 2009.
  9. ^ Nets' Lopez, Thunder's Westbrook named Rookies of the Month Archived March 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, NBA.com, March 2, 2009.
  10. ^ http://scoreboards.canoe.ca/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=canoe&page=nba/news/newstest.aspx?id=4171097 Archived July 15, 2012, at archive.today
  11. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 26, 2008. Retrieved August 16, 2008.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. ^ Silva, Chris. "Thunder GM Sam Presti talks about team's newest acquisitions". Thunder.NBA.com. Archived from the original on March 8, 2009. Retrieved February 21, 2009.
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