The 2008–09 Dallas Mavericks season was the 29th season of the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The season marked by the arrival of former NBA Coach of the Year, Rick Carlisle who was hired on May 9, 2008, following the firing of Avery Johnson after the 2008 NBA playoffs. Finishing at 50–32 as the number six seed, the Mavericks defeated the San Antonio Spurs in the opening round of the playoffs in five games to advance to the conference semi-finals for the first time since 2006. They were, however, unable to defeat the Carmelo Anthony-led Denver Nuggets in the next round as they lost in five games. The Nuggets would go on to the conference finals, where they lost to the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers in six games.

Key dates

Draft picks

Roster

{| class="toccolours" style="font-size: 95%; width: 100%;" ! colspan="2" style="background-color: #0B60AD; color: #D3D3D3; text-align: center;" | 2008–09 Dallas Mavericks final roster ! Players !! Coaches {| class="sortable" style="background:transparent; margin:0px; width:100%;" ! Pos. !! # !! Name !! Height !! Weight !! DOB (Y–M–D) !! From

Regular season

Standings

Record vs. opponents

Game log

20,066 16,893 19,923 17,398 19,175 14,249 20,391 21,751 20,085 19,271 10,935 18,203 20,035 19,996 18,997 12,650 19,670 19,813 19,966 19,937 19,736 20,190 19,969 18,832 9,889 15,582 20,200 20,643 19,911 16,685 20,264 20,327 11,731 19,794 19,779 18,422 12,294 14,158 19,947 20,325 14,503 13,898 22,076 18,624 19,864 19,600 16,551 19,767 19,911 20,349 19,667 20,285 19,878 18,195 20,223 18,797 19,558 20,007 19,688 18,527 20,316 17,230 20,150 18,422 20,286 18,751 18,997 20,427 17,499 17,232 19,862 20,310 20,562 12,111 20,021 15,126 20,301 20,017 20,370 16,640 19,900 20,350

Playoffs

Awards and records

Awards

Week/Month

All-Star

Season

Player statistics

Ragular season

† Denotes player spent time with another team in the season. Stats reflect time with the Mavericks only.

Playoffs

Transactions

Free agents

Additions

Subtractions