Daniel Hackett: 29 points, and a season that works

The scoring line is the smallest of his time at this level, and Bologna has not lost a domestic game. The reason sits in the turnover column.

The job he has now

Virtus Bologna has won seven games in a row. The team is 4-0 in Serie A and 4-2 in the EuroLeague, and Daniel Hackett has come off the bench every one of those nights.

His job is to run the second unit, choose the tempo, and give the ball away as rarely as anyone in the rotation. He is averaging 3.2 points, the lowest figure of his time at this level.

Nine games, and the turnover column

Four Serie A games have given him 20 points and 12 assists, so 5.0 and 3.0 a night. Five EuroLeague games have given him 9 points and 3 assists. Across all nine he has 29 points, 15 assists and 3.2 points a game.

The turnover column is where the season reads differently. Over the eight games with a complete box score he has 11 assists and 4 turnovers, in 115 minutes on the floor. In the first three league games the ratio was eight assists to one loss.

He has played between 12 and 18 minutes a night. Serie A has given him more of them, 17.7 a game over the first three, and Europe has kept him at 12.4.

Serie A: four games, one assignment

On 27 September he finished with 6 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists in 20 minutes. Every game since has looked close to that one.

A week later came 5 points, 4 rebounds with three of them offensive, and 3 assists again. On 11 October he took 3 points and 2 assists out of a 93-86 win on the road.

Against Scafati on 18 October, in a 108-83 win, he had 6 points and 4 assists. His pass for the Klintman three put Bologna up 25-14 inside the first quarter.

He also hit two threes in the fourth, at 76-56 and at 84-61, with the result already settled. The shooting is new this month, and the role around it has stayed where it was.

EuroLeague: four flat nights, then Baskonia

Europe gave him little at first. He saw few minutes and took few shots against Fenerbahce, Milan, Olympiacos and Bayern, and he did not get on the floor at all in the win at Paris.

Baskonia on 16 October, an 86-78 result, was his best European night of the season: 15 minutes, 7 points without a miss, 4 rebounds, no turnovers, and an index rating of 9. He went 1 of 1 inside, 1 of 1 from three and 2 of 2 from the line. Counting Baskonia and Scafati together, that is 13 points in three days and three threes from three attempts.

What the decision profile says so far

The profile classifies him as a Pressure Holder with Clutch Performer traits. His highest single reading is error control, which is the part of the job the coaching staff is buying.

Five EuroLeague games sit behind these numbers, which is a thin sample for a profile. They hold as working figures until the season gives them more games to stand on.

Decision profile, percentile against the league

Error control94

Concentration63

Game reading54

League median

Source: TeamKeys. Five EuroLeague games, 2026/27.

Two things a staff would watch, both ordinary at his mileage. Fouls run at around three a game in a little over a quarter of playing time, and the minutes question gets harder in the weeks with two fixtures.

Three seasons of the same job in Serie A

The role has been shrinking for years while the output has held. Back in 2020/21 he was playing 24 minutes a night and scoring ten or eleven.

Hackett in Serie A, minutes and points a game
Season	Minutes	Points
2024/25	19.7	5.7
2025/26	18.2	4.5
2026/27	17.7	5.0

Source: TeamKeys. Serie A, 2026/27 through 18 October.

Two minutes a season come off the clock, and the scoring has gone back up rather than down. In 2024/25 his assists to turnovers ran close to five, and this season the first three games read eight to one.

Since 2020/21 the database holds 428 of his games across the domestic league and European competition. That is a long enough record to see whether the way he keeps the ball has moved, and so far it has held.

A note on the data: the 2026/27 figures cover four Serie A games and five EuroLeague games, through 18 October 2026, and the assist and turnover counts come from the eight games with a complete box score. Decision profiles measure how a player decides on the court, from game data, and they are not judgements on the person. Percentiles are relative to the league and the season. Data source: TeamKeys.

Questions people ask

Why look at turnovers instead of points on a player like this?

Because that is the job he has. A second unit lives on possessions that end in a shot rather than a giveaway, and 11 assists against 4 turnovers describes that better than 3.2 points a game.

How much can be read into nine games?

Enough to see a role and a usage pattern, and not enough to fix a rating. The read gets reliable at around 15 games, which is why the profile here is reported with its sample attached.

Is his scoring drop a decline?

The Serie A table says otherwise. His minutes have come down for three seasons running, and the points a game have gone from 5.7 to 4.5 and back up to 5.0, so the rate has held while the role has narrowed.

Daniel Hackett: 29 points in nine games, and a season that works