The Toronto Tempo are trying to win now in their inaugural year, and many people are doubting them and/or suggesting they should have done what most expansion teams do, which is build with youth.
We’ll see just how far the Tempo can go with the roster they’ve constructed, the highlight of which is two players who like to score the basketball a lot and who have been paid over $1 million to do so in Brittney Sykes and Marina Mabrey.
Brittney Sykes and Marina Mabrey are a legit Big 2 for the Tempo
The Tempo have a legit Big 2. Sykes and Mabrey aren’t superstars, but they are certainly stars with the ability to help this team win some games right now.
Sykes is No. 28 on ESPN’s Top 50 WNBA players list; Mabrey is No. 31. Compare that with the other 2026 expansion team, the Portland Fire, who have no representatives on the Top 50.
Sykes notably went all the way to the national championship game with Syracuse in 2016, but was actually the third-leading scorer on that team with 10.3 points per game and no consistent 3-point shot to speak of. It wasn’t until the next year that she made 57 triples at 39.3 percent and recalled her 2014 high-scoring ways with 19.2 points a contest.
She was drafted No. 7 overall in the 2017 draft. The 3-point shooting has come and gone at the pro level, but was really good in 2026 at Unrivaled (2.1 makes per game at 40 percent). She’s always prided herself on her defense and has been chasing Defensive Player of the Year. In just her second WNBA season, she finished sixth in the voting for that award; she went on to finish second in 2021 and third in 2023, with All-Defensive First Team honors coming those years and Second Team honors coming in 2020 and 2022.
When not hitting 3s, she can score in other ways. Her career-best scoring average is 15.9 points per game, which came in 2023, her first season with the Washington Mystics. She is as quick and physical a driver as they come, and is gonna get herself to the free throw line if she doesn’t make the layup.
Mabrey wasn’t a high draft pick like Sykes, but quickly changed her WNBA fortunes for the better with her work ethic. She added scoring punch off the bench for the Dallas Wings before we were allowed to call her a true star, and even now she remains somewhat underrated. Her 27 percent shooting from 3 last year doesn’t help her cause when it comes to that, but she has an energy and a mystique about her that suggests she can put a city (and in this case, a whole country) on her back.
Her career high in scoring of 15 points per game also came in 2023, her lone full season as a member of the Chicago Sky.
So with two players who have proven capable of scoring 15.9 and 15 points per game, Toronto seems willing to give Sykes and Mabrey full control of the offense and empower them to reach or surpass those numbers this year.
But it’s not just about Mabrey and Sykes for this team. The Tempo have a roster full of players who have potential.
Toronto’s top pick in the expansion draft, Julie Allemand, has shown flashes in the past
Julie Allemand is probably the most interesting player on the Tempo’s roster and could be the X factor that determines how much success the team has.
We have to be very aware of her Wubble season, so as to not underestimate her and Toronto’s decision to take her with their first pick in the expansion draft. She was a 23-year-old rookie in 2020 and shot 47.8 percent from 3, which was good for No. 2 in the league with 44 makes, which averaged out to two per game in the shortened season. She was a great distributor too with 5.8 dimes per contest, which was also second in the league in 2020, to go along with her 8.5 points.
She has only played in the W in two other seasons, and her 3-point shot hasn’t been the same, but last year with the Los Angeles Sparks she played 28.3 minutes per game and neared her assist average from 2020 with five. Plus, you have to take into account her overseas career; she was recently named EuroLeague Women’s Final Six MVP for her play with champion Fenerbahçe Opet.
I think the 2020 Allemand was the real Allemand. The now-29-year-old will be given a large role with this Tempo team, and I expect her to excel.
The Tempo have demonstrated faith in Nyara Sabally, Temi Fágbénlé and Kiki Rice
Toronto’s second pick in the expansion draft, Nyara Sabally, is a former No. 5 overall pick in the college draft, and has the potential you would expect from such a high draftee. Unfortunately, she tore the ACL in her right knee twice in college and that has been an impediment to her playing consistently in the W. She’s also been buried behind the stars on the superteam Liberty when healthy. She’s currently recovering from a concussion, but should be ready to go soon. Hopefully she will be able to show off her skills.
Meanwhile, in free agency, the Tempo gave Temi Fágbénlé a $1 million contract, investing heavily in the 33-year-old who has played in five WNBA seasons. Last year, with the Golden State Valkyries, she had her best campaign yet, starting 38 times with 23.7 minutes, 7.4 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. Her 2-point field goal percentage of 60.4 was No. 4 in the league.
Kiki Rice was a great pick-up at No. 6 in this spring’s college draft. She should be an immediate contributor while sharing point guard duties with Allemand.
She’s a former No. 2 high school recruit who didn’t blow us away with super high scoring averages at UCLA, but very impressively notched 14.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game as a senior while flirting with 50-40-90 status (49 percent from the field, 38.5 from 3 and 90.2 from the stripe).
Well-known vets Kia Nurse (a Canadian!) and Isabelle Harrison add to win-now approach
Kia Nurse is the player Tempo fans are most excited about!
She’s the lone Canadian, and one of the faces of Canada basketball, having led Team Canada in scoring at two Olympics. Specifically, she’s from about an hour southwest of Toronto; just follow Lake Ontario down and you’ll end up in her hometown of Hamilton. At age 30, Nurse is a former All-Star who is still in her prime. If she can add to Toronto’s list of stars, watch out.
She averaged 13.7 points and shot 35.3 percent from deep in her All-Star campaign of 2019. Last year, she was good for 7.2 points per game and 33.5 percent from distance as a member of the Chicago Sky.
Isabelle Harrison is another vet with a successful past, having averaged double figure scoring twice in her career. The 32-year-old may see significant playing time in the frontcourt mix with Sabally and Fágbénlé.
Aaliyah Nye and Lexi Held hope to have long futures in Toronto
Aaliyah Nye saw fairly significant playing time—15.3 minutes per game across all 44 games—for the champion Las Vegas Aces last year and is an absolute sniper, having shot 45.5 percent from downtown with 111 makes in her last season at Alabama.
Lexi Held was undrafted out of college, but earned a spot on the 2025 Phoenix Mercury and averaged 14.7 minutes across 32 games, scoring 5.3 points per contest. The Tempo took her in the first round of the expansion draft, and she had a stellar first preseason game with21 points on 7-for-10 from the field and 5-for-8 from 3. She may be the last roster lock.
Expect forward Maria Conde, center Nikolina Milić and guard Kitija Laksa to be the last three in the mix for the final two spots. Conde hasn’t played in the W yet, while Milić and Laksa have spent two and one years in the league, respectively, with moderate impact. But Conde has been phenomenal overseas and was taken higher than the other two in the expansion draft.
What do you think? Can this roster make the playoffs? Do you think Sykes and Mabrey have been overrated by the Tempo? Or do you think they are underrated by the doubters? Do you think the rest of the roster is good enough to amplify what Sykes and Mabrey do?
