The WNBA’s eight playoff teams are set, and while the Toronto Tempo isn’t one of them, Canada’s expansion team still has a lot to play for with five games remaining in its inaugural season. Rookie development, increased awareness in Toronto and across Canada, and player evaluation for next year are all still on the table. Hopefully, however, wins are off the table: Toronto’s 2-18 skid since Canada Day has them in position to secure a top-two pick in next year’s draft.
Here are six things to watch
for in the five remaining games.
Race for the Bottom
WNBA draft lottery odds are determined by a team’s combined record over the previous two seasons, but since Toronto has played just one season, that’s all that counts in this specific case. Toronto (11-28 record, 28.2% win percentage) trails only the Connecticut Sun (21-61, 25.6%) in draft lottery positioning. Here are the outcomes that the Tempo need to slip below the Sun in win percentage and claim the best odds, with both teams looking at six games remaining:
- Tempo win 3+ games: No. 1 odds are impossible
- Tempo win 2 games: No. 1 if Connecticut wins 5+ games (5 wins exactly sends things to a tiebreak, which seems to be most recent year record)
- Tempo win 1 game: No. 1 if Connecticut wins 3+ games (same tiebreak at 3 wins)
- Tempo win 0 games: No. 1 (tiebreak)
Tankathon gives Connecticut the hardest strength of schedule the rest of the way, with five games remaining against playoff teams… and one game remaining against Toronto, which is why the Tempo being shut out would automatically give them the best lottery odds. USC phenom JuJu Watkins waits as the presumptive top pick in 2027.
World Cup Departures
That chase should be made easier, at least for a few games, by the absences of Julie Allemand, Nyara Sabally, and Maria Conde, all of whom have had their contracts temporarily suspended (no cause for alarm!) to depart early to prepare for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup with their international teams. All three missed the Tempo’s games against the Las Vegas Aces on August 28. They’ll also remain absent against the Phoenix Mercury on August 29. Sabally (Germany) and Conde (Spain) will face each other in group play. The tournament will take place in Berlin from September 4-13. As a result, the WNBA season will pause from August 31-September 16 before returning to finish out the regular season.
Starting Lineups
The World Cup departures should help the Tempo’s lottery chances. They’ll also likely help the Tempo secure a distinct mark in their first season: Toronto should finish the year having played the higher number of unique starting lineups.
Given the raft of injuries that have beset the Tempo this season, this should come as no surprise. Toronto signed Kiana Williams to a seven-day extreme hardship contract on August 24, timed to run until the start of the World Cup break. With fellow guards Allemand (World Cup), Brittney Sykes (injured), and Marina Mabrey (injured) out, Williams could become the 13th player to get a start for the Tempo this season. WNBA rosters, theoretically, have only 12 players on them!
Rookie Playing Time
Five of those starters have been rookies, and entering the matchup against the Aces on Aug. 28, Toronto ranked second in the WNBA in total minutes played by first-year players this season (3,012), behind only the Washington Mystics, one of the youngest teams in league history. Besides Conde (888 minutes), who is technically a rookie but, at 29 with years of European professional experience to her name, is really a veteran. Toronto has gotten a lot of minutes from potential all-rookie selection Kiki Rice (584), undrafted free agent Laura Juškaitė (942), and second-round pick Teonni Key (307). Conde and Juškaitė alone have played more minutes than rookies on all but five other teams in the league.
Developmental players Ornella Bankole and Zaay Green can make up to five more appearances this season before Toronto maxes out its developmental player usage (24 games).
When the rookies work together, it has been beautiful.
Laura Juškaitė’s Sneaky Skill
Sometimes, when the rookies work independently, it’s also beautiful. Juškaitė has one of the sneakiest smart-play stats of the season: no one in the WNBA is better at scoring from the tipoff. According to play-by-play data, there have been eight field goals made in the first six seconds of gameplay this season. Juškaitė has three of them.
In recent games, she’s read where the ball goes if an opposing right-handed jumper wins the tip, and Juškaitė has been off to the races.
Juškaitė flashed this skill earlier in the season too… but when she herself engaged in the jump ball (with an assist from Conde).
Any way you can get yourself free points, you do it. This is excellent dead-ball execution in an area often overlooked. No wonder Juškaitė has started 30 games this season.
Guide to the Five Games Left
It’s off to Phoenix for another late game against the Mercury (13-26), who lost to the Aces in the Finals last year but will miss the playoffs even after the mid-season acquisition of Kelsey Plum. That completes the final West Coast road trip of the season, and then it’s time for the World Cup break.
Once back from the World Cup, Toronto closes out the season in style. The last two home games of the season will be against the high-powered, playoff-bound Indiana Fever (25-14) and New York Liberty (23-15), before a season-ending road trip takes the Tempo to Chicago (15-24) and to Connecticut, where they will be the last team to play against the Sun (10-28); the team is moving to Houston (where they will reassume the Comets mantle from the league’s early years) before the 2027 season. As discussed above, if Toronto heads into this game winless, a final L would secure the best lottery odds for next year’s draft.
That could be a stressful game. But compared to a franchise moving, just worrying about ping-pong balls seems pretty good.
