There wasn’t much to lose for the Toronto Tempo in their inaugural season.
No matter the results for the expansion franchise, the energy coming into the 2026 season was a mix of excitement and celebration at the fact that Canada finally had its first WNBA team.
As proven by the minutes-long standing ovation the Tempo’s fans gave them at the end of their final home game of the season last Sunday (a 106-69 blowout loss versus the New York Liberty), fans were generally understanding of the roller coaster of results Toronto’s first season has provided.
Reality came fast for the Tempo, as a competitive, exhausting and physical WNBA landscape took its toll on the team. Tempo general manager Monica Wright Rogers and her front office had the task of adapting to the seemingly endless injuries to their roster while balancing building for the future with competing in the present.
As the Tempo’s season comes to an end this week, there is a lot the team can take forward into next year. Here’s a look at the highs and lows from the Tempo’s debut campaign.
High: Marina Mabrey flourishes in new role
Taking Marina Mabrey in the WNBA expansion draft and making her the WNBA’s first $1 million contract was a huge risk for the Tempo.
Of course, an expansion season is the time to take those sorts of risks, but the front office saw something in one of the league’s most fiery players that many others hadn’t. They believed that if they could take her passion and turn it into leadership, they could unlock something special.
Mabrey was coming off of a pretty transformative run at Unrivaled, the off-season 3-on-3 league created by WNBA starsBreanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier. The league gives WNBA talent a place to develop and compete without having to move overseas every winter. Mabrey broke the single-game scoring record in February with a 47-point performance and became one of the sport’s most entertaining characters.
Before that, Mabrey had cycled through a few WNBA teams. After being drafted to the LA Sparks, she played a few seasons with the Dallas Wings,Chicago Sky and Connecticut Sun before entering 2026 as a free agent.
Then Mabrey was chosen by Toronto, handed a huge contract, and made the face of a franchise. In her first player scrum at training camp, she told the media she knew she now had to “do her job,” given the responsibility placed on her shoulders.
She did her job, alright. A career-high 20.8 points per game, a league-tying 53-point performance in a single game and earned both her and the franchise’s first All-Star nomination. Her season unfortunately ended earlier than expected due to a stubborn adductor injury, but the swing the Tempo took on Mabrey worked out. She locked in and endeared an entire country with the way she balanced her emotions with results.
The Tempo have another year of Mabrey as she is signed for the 2027 season, and if she continues this level of play, they’ll likely throw the bag at her again after that. It seems like a match made in heaven – the Tempo believe in her, and Mabrey is finally in a market that appreciates her talent and personality.
Low: Temi Fagbenle’s contract and the frontcourt situation
It became clear very quickly in free agency that the Tempo could have a serious frontcourt problem. The team ended up drafting mostly guards and wings in the expansion draft, and while 6-foot-5 forward Nyara Sabally was a good addition, her injury history meant she hadn’t had much experience as a team’s primary big.
Bigs were snatched up quickly in free agency: Alanna Smith to Dallas, Megan Gustafson (now DiLeo) to Portland, Ezi Magbegor staying in Seattle, Nneka Ogwumike to Los Angeles and A’ja Wilson predictably staying in Las Vegas.
The Tempo offered a contract to restricted free agent ShakiraAustin, but the Mystics quickly matched it, and Austin ended up having an incredible 2026 campaign. So many of the Tempo’s problems this season – lack of size in the paint, rim protection, interior scoring – could have been solved by Austin.
Toronto ended up offering Temi Fagbenle, who had a decent run with the Golden State Valkyries the year before, $1 million to come be the Tempo’s centre on a one-year contract. Fagbenle started in 38 of her 39 appearances in Golden State, averaging 7.4 points per game. The Tempo’s front office likely hoped for a progression similar to what Mabrey experienced, and with cap space to spare, it was another gamble to bring Fagbenle in.
Fagbenle’s tenure in Toronto was not a success. She ended up playing only 25 games due to injury, starting only 10, and averaging 5.9 points and 3.4 rebounds per game. Fagbenle also struggled to protect the rim.
Sabally also dealt with injuries during the season, and ongoing inconsistency in the frontcourt lineup resulted inToronto getting bullied in the paint in most games.
Isabelle Harrison, who the Tempo picked up in free agency after she played under Sandy Brondello in New York, ended up being a highlight of the season. Harrison had a career year herself, but she thrives at the four.
Toronto needs an efficient two-way centre next season, and with Fagbenle’s contract expiring, she likely will not return in 2027. It’s too expensive a price for a player who struggled to stay on the floor and can’t defend the rim when she is on the court.
High: The rookie duo of Kiki Rice and Laura Juskaite
The Tempo brought in rookies of all kinds this season, offering training-camp contracts to players overseas who had never played in the WNBA, while also drafting some promising talent out of the NCAA.
Their two biggest successes in this area came in two different forms – their future franchise player in point guard Kiki Rice, and a promising future depth piece in forward Laura Juskaite.
Rice was the Tempo’s top choice (sixth overall) in the entry draft, and her falling that far was a stroke of luck.Rice was coming off of a championship with UCLA, and the even-keeled maturity of the point guard led the Tempo to believe they could unlock more of her game.
After a nerve-wracking start to her season, being held scoreless in her debut, Rice went on a run of double-digit scoring games and was drumming up serious Rookie of the Year conversation. While an ankle sprain and two-month recovery, as well as the absolute takeover by Olivia Miles of the Minnesota Lynx, derailed Rice’s ROTY hopes, she bounced back after injury.
The Tempo’s persistent injury issues meant Rice was slotted into a permanent starting role for the second half of the season, and she thrived.Rice is fifth among rookies in points per game (12.9), fifth in assists per game (3.5), and has scored in double digits in 20 of the 26 games she has played this season.
The future seems bright for Rice, who will get a running mate to join her for the long term as the Tempo likely pick in the top four of next year’s WNBA draft. With three years left on her rookie contract, Rice is a player to build around.
Juskaite ended up being one of the most available players for theTempo this season, and her gritty play quickly impressed. She’s everywhere on the court, and while there are obvious improvements to be made – getting fouls down, reducing turnovers – she had a ton of raw talent and potential. She ranks sixth in rookie points per game with 11.3 points per game.
On a fully formed and healthy team, Juskaite is a great sixth woman/bench option to come in to provide energy and scoring and change the dynamic of a game. It wouldn’t be shocking if the Tempo rewarded Juskaite for her efforts with a long-term contract, but either way, the team retains her training camp rights going into 2027.
Low: Missing out on Carla Leite in the expansion draft
Two-team expansion drafts are tricky, and it’s even more difficult to predict how players with little experience in the WNBA will adapt to bigger roles. But missing out on a player like Carla Leite was a low for the Tempo, given how she ended up performing for the Portland Fire.
The 22-year-old French point guard went from a bench role player on the Valkyries last season to a playmaking machine for the Fire in 2026. From six starts in the 2025 season to 37 in the 2026 season, Leite went from scoring7.2 points and 2.0 assists per game to 16.0 points and 6.3 assists per game this year in Portland.
Toronto instead opted to take Julie Allemand as their point guard in the expansion draft. The Belgian had 29 starts, averaging 6.2 points and 5.5 assists per game. At 30 years old, Allemand is definitely experienced, but the ability to mould her game into the Tempo’s specific style is less likely at her age. Plus, if they had opted for Leite, you would have added a younger player who has not yet reached the prime of her career.
There are risks in taking a younger player as well, but if the Tempo are looking at a four-year process to being championship contenders, as Brondello has alluded to several times to media in the past few weeks, bringing on a 22-year-old point guard fits that timeline perfectly. Plus, pairing her with the experience the Tempo ended up getting in Mabrey, Brittney Sykes, and even Harrison would have made her age less of a factor.
Leite is definitely the one who got away for the Tempo in available prospects in that expansion draft.
Low: Injuries halt the momentum of an exciting team
It’ll always be a season of “what-ifs” for the Tempo, as injuries were the most prominent and consistent storyline of the year. The team will not have had a single game where their injury report was clean.
From Harrison’s dislocated thumb in training camp, to Fagbenle’s shoulder in the home opener, to Rice’s Grade 3 ankle sprain and Sykes’ two different foot injuries – it’s been rough.
Among those injuries have also been Mabrey’s adductor, various groin/calf strains among starters and bench players alike, a season-ending knee injury for Aneesah Morrow, and the list goes on.
There’s definitely a case to say that this Tempo team, fully healthy, had a shot at making the playoffs.
Before her initial plantar fascia injury in June, Sykes was having an All-Star season herself, averaging more than 20 points per game.
Mabrey having to take on the majority of the offensive load withSykes out led to physical and rough defence on her, which didn’t help. Many of the players that had been scouted as bench pieces for the team were forced to step up into starter roles.
Toronto was forced to burn through development player activation games, leading to the need for extreme hardship contracts and exemptions from the league just to have enough players to avoid forfeit.
Brondello said often that she had “never experienced anything like this in her career.” Brondello has been a WNBA head coach for 14 seasons, including2026, and this will be the first season in that career she will not head to the playoffs with her team.
An uncontrollable part of the game sometimes, there will likely bea ton of effort from the Tempo to at least try to avoid a similar fate in their second season.
High: Potential for a top-two draft pick in 2027
Whether they wanted to or not, the Tempo quickly ended up in a position to tank for a high draft pick in 2027. It’s not even like they had to put much effort into purposely tanking, either, as the injuries and absences did it for them.
The silver lining though, is that this is the time for WNBA teams to jockey in the lottery.
For starters, in a league that takes a team’s two-year record into account when creating draft lottery odds, the Tempo only had one year of data to count. Every loss counted more for their chances at the best odds, and that situation will never happen again.
There are also the potential players in the upcoming draft to consider. JuJu Watkins could potentially be the No. 1 pick (if the guard decides to declare over taking a fifth year at USC) and would be a franchise-altering player for the Tempo.
Getting a top prospect like Texas forward Madison Booker or Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo with the second or third pick would also set Toronto up for success for the future.
Despite the disappointment of the amount of injuries the Tempo experienced in their first year, it’s almost the perfect scenario. Even the depleted Toronto team played tough hoops through many games down the stretch, with Brondello saying there were only a few times she was “disappointed in her team’s effort.” To give the fans a great experience and set your team up for atop draft pick is the best of both worlds.
But while this inaugural season was one of celebration and excitement, that can’t last forever. The Tempo have some serious adjustments to make in the off-season if their plan is to make a run at the playoffs in 2027.
