By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
The Greek champions looked at other cases of players for the crucial positions of the foreign guard – that became even more important after the departure of Kostas Sloukas – and ultimately signed Daniel Hackett. A signing that had been “booked” from the first weekend of July, with the Italian-American guard waiting for a few days, exhausting every possibility for a serious prospect from the NBA that never came.
His career
Hackett (1m.98, 28 years old) was born in Italy, studied and played college basketball in the USA (with USC Trojans) and in 2009 was left out of the draft. Then, he decided that his future was in Europe. He began his course from Benetton Treviso, played for 2 years in the city he grew up in, Pesaro (with Scavolini) and in the summer of 2012 he was transferred to the team that was then the boss in Italian basketball, Siena. The financial problems and the scandals that Ferdinando Minucci was involved in sent him to Armani with a buy-out in the middle of the 2013-14 season and in Milano he was destined to stay for one and a half seasons.
The player himself sought in the summer to opt out of his contract (which would expire in 2016) because he felt that he had come full circle and that he needed a new challenge in basketball. He had a few workouts in New York and without any real interest from teams in the USA he signed the two-year contract (with a release clause for next summer) with Olympiacos.
The characteristics
Hackett is the classic case of a player who can play in all the positions along the perimeter, just like Strawberry, because of his size and because he can hold his own defensively marking the positions ‘1’ through ‘3’. He creates rifts, has a really good first step and in recent years he has improved considerably the way he perceives the game and the quality of his facilitating.
A good rebounder, and in his last season in Milano he developed his ability to threaten from mid-range, shooting after a dribble. His weak spot is the three-pointer. On a good day he can score outside the 6m.75, but overall his career average is low (30%) with the first half of the 2013-14 season with Siena the sole exception. Another problem that he’s had for years – despite being a great teammate in the locker room as well as on the court – is his bad temper. He gets upset easily, loses his concentration and his composure and that’s where his game deteriorates. It’s a weakness that he has to work on.
The prediction: If he fits in harmoniously he will take off
In basketball, the environment, the locker room, the chemistry, the system of a team all play a huge role in the players’ performance. For foreign players, and in particular for guys with Hackett’s personality, this is even truer. The way in which Olympiacos functions, the clear roles and, above all, the fact that Hackett will have on his side a leader with Spanoulis’s style of game (and not Gentile) might quite possibly set him free, put him in the right frame of mind and get the best out of him.
Hackett is a player who gets affected by his emotions and that’s where the biggest key is in his career with Olympiacos. In terms of basketball, he has the elements that the reds could never find in the post-Law era. A good driver of the ball, strong, a player who likes to create and who, at the same time, is capable of setting up and finishing his own individual plays. In Olympiacos he will find open spaces as a pair with Spanoulis and in this way he can increase his productivity but also his percentages.
He doesn’t do any one thing at a superior level, but he does a lot of things well with the main characteristic being that he likes to attack the basket, something that his new team has been looking for two years. With Hackett and Strawberry, Giannis Sfairopoulos will have options for many legitimate line-ups and combinations with the guards. If Olympiacos sign a genuine shooter (something that they need to do) and expand their threat from long-range to the sides and to those who support the offense (like Lojeski) they can become a team that is able to adapt in all game styles and win every time.