You can’t talk about the Toronto Tempo’s inaugural season without starting with Marina Mabrey’s WNBA-record-tying 53 points in a single game on June 25.
Mabrey ended up averaging a career-high 20.8 points per game, a mark that not only was a significant increase from her previous mark of 15 points per game but also good for sixth in the WNBA. The first-time All-Star had been a great 3-point
shooter in the past, but she took her ability to get on a heater and raised it to another level at 2026 Unrivaled and during the 2026 W season.
You couldn’t give her any space, and she would make 3 after 3 no matter the degree of difficulty. She made 105 triples at 38.5 percent!
Mabrey lived up to her million-dollar contract, as did her backcourt partner Brittney Sykes, though Sykes was limited to 17 games due to a plantar fascia injury. Mabrey also dealt with an injuries and missed 12 contests.
Together, they led the Tempo to a 7-5 record to start the season. Injuries were then the main culprit in the team then going 4-28 over the remainder of the season for a final record of 11-33.
Sykes was on track to be an All-Star, as she upped her career-best scoring average from 15.9 points per game to 18.6 points per game. Both she and Mabrey were empowered to take career-highs in field goal attempts per game, and they also each took the most free throws per game of their careers.
The Tempo were questioned by many for attempting to win now as an expansion team. Also, many doubted if it was the right move to pay Mabrey and Sykes as much as they did and give them the reins. But they managed to be the two best players on a team that started 7-5.
Injuries up and down the rotation doomed the Tempo
Canada basketball fans had been dying to get a WNBA team of their own and were treated to more than just Mabrey and Sykes.
However, the injury bug bit the supporting cast as well.
The No. 6 pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft, Kiki Rice earned All-Rookie honors. She was third on the team with 13.4 points per game, as her college improvement from beyond the arc translated to the W (26 makes at 35.1 percent). She also made 3.3 free throws per game at 86.9 percent. A Grade 2 ankle sprain limited her to 28 games, though.
Isabelle Harrison missed the first 10 games of the season with a thumb injury before experiencing a career resurgence. At age 32, she averaged double-digit scoring for the first time since 2021 (with a career-best 12.8 points per game) and a career- and team-high 6.9 rebounds per game.
Nyara Sabally, the team’s second pick in the expansion draft, played in just 24 games due to various injuries. She was good when she played, though, achieving 12.3 points per game (fifth on the team) and 5.3 boards per game (third on the team).
María Conde was a solid contributor, playing the fifth-most minutes per game on the squad at 26.4, but she missed nine games (various injuries/illness/Spain national team commitments). Toronto’s first pick in the expansion draft, Julie Allemand shot better than 30 percent from 3 for the first time in her W career since 2020 with an impressive mark of 41.9 percent (39 makes). She also posted 5.5 assists per game to lead the Tempo and place 10th in the league. She played in 33 games, missing some time due to injury and Belgium national team commitments.
A 29-year-old rookie revelation, Laura Juškaitė was the only key contributor to play in more than 35 games, playing in all 44 (36 starts) with averages of 25.4 minutes per game and 11.3 points per game.
Toronto is set up for a potentially transformative offseason
Toronto’s third million dollar woman, after Mabrey and Sykes, is Temi Fagbenle, who was never able to provide her expected impact, playing in just 25 games due to injury and registering just 5.9 points per contest. She is now an unrestricted free agent.
The next-highest paid player on the Tempo is Sabally at under half a million ($436,957). So if they don’t retain Fagbenle, they’ll have some room to work with. Mabrey, Sykes and Allemand are signed to guaranteed contracts through 2027. Rice is signed to her rookie contract through 2029, while Aneesah Morrow, a midseason pickup via trade, is also on her rookie contract (through 2028).
Morrow averaged a solid 9.3 points per game (seventh on the team) and 6.6 boards per game (second on the team) across her seven games with Toronto.
With the Tempo’s winning percentage matching the now-Houston Comets (previously the Connecticut Sun) as the lowest in the W when counting the past two seasons combined (so only 2026 for Toronto), they are tied with Houston for the highest odds of winning the draft lottery, the results of which will be revealed on Nov. 15 (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Both they and the Comets have a 32.9 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick, which presumably would be used to draft JuJu Watkins, a generational talent out of USC, if she declares for the draft.
Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello is a proven winner
Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello is a two-time WNBA championship-winning head coach, having won it all with the Phoenix Mercury in her first year there (2014) and the New York Liberty in 2024.
She’s been to two other Finals (2021 with the Mercury and 2023 with New York) and had been to the playoffs in all 13 years of her head coaching career prior to 2026. Her career-low for winning percentage before this year’s .250 was .412.
It’s hard to imagine Brondello not finding success with the Tempo—and finding it soon.
The amount of injuries the team faced this year was absurd. They were better than their record indicates. Perhaps they would have made a run at the playoffs with a healthy team, although there was a big, nine-game gap between eighth place and ninth place.
Regardless, bright days are ahead for the Tempo. Even this 11-33 season was special, with great crowds showing up at Coca-Cola Coliseum, the team’s home arena in Toronto, and 20,996 fans showing up at the team’s game in Montreal, setting a WNBA attendance record. In 2027, beware of the two-headed monster that is Mabrey and Sykes, as the Tempo look to do some damage with better injury luck.
