Yes Scott, it is possible to connect directly to SAP HANA.
If your question is more towards the HANA connection when moving the application from Local mode to BI platform:
If you have an application in local mode that has a query/model from SAP HANA as source, you can still export the application into BI platform. While importing the application in BI platform, you will need to map the database connection too, as shown below:
Let me know if this helps.
Thanks,
Nithya V