TORONTO — Before a single ball bounced at Coca-Cola Coliseum, the Toronto Tempo had already made history.
As Canada’s first professional women’s basketball team, the mere existence of the Bordeaux and Borealis blue-adorned squad shifted the landscape of both basketball and sport as a whole in the country.
That reality is not lost on the players.
“I got chills thinking about it … to be part of that type of history, I’m grateful,” Brittney Sykes said after practice on Wednesday. “It’s a lot of gratitude, and it’s just a lot of remembering why you do what you do.”
And it may have gotten lost in the shuffle between the trailblazing and history-making, but what Sykes and her teammates do is play basketball.
While the on-court product has felt secondary at times, at least from a fan perspective, once the opening jump ball is tossed for Friday’s season opener, basketball will be all there is to focus on.
And for what it’s worth, head coach Sandy Brondello and her team have been locked in on the on-court aspect for the better part of two weeks. A period of time that highlights both what Brondello’s team hopes to accomplish and how many decisions are yet to be made.
Which has led to Friday, for a matchup against the upstart Washington Mystics. The team Sykes spent 2.5 seasons with before they shipped her off to the Seattle Storm midway through 2025, and the same squad that features a couple of rookie Kiki Rice’s national championship-winning teammates from UCLA. Details that haven’t been discussed a lot yet, with how much of a spotlight has been placed on simply getting to this point — shaping an identity and inspiring a fandom.
But the time to focus on hoops has arrived. And for fans to lock in just as the Tempo have throughout training camp and the pre-season.
Introducing your 2026 Toronto Tempo opening day roster.
History starts here. 🤝
Marquee Moments presented by Sephora Canada pic.twitter.com/GbQvjif6W9
— Toronto Tempo (@TempoBasketball) May 7, 2026
Defensive discipline
The Tempo wasted little time in branding themselves as a defence-first ball club heading into Year 1, especially one that wants to apply plenty of pressure on the ball, in gaps and passing lanes. Ask any player on the team, and they’ll tell you as much.
But as many Toronto basketball fans learned by watching the 2025-26 Raptors, honing the discipline required to execute upon such an aggressive scheme requires plenty of discipline as well. A notion that’s only been reaffirmed throughout the Tempo’s pre-season appearances.
Early (and very high) pick-ups were frequent — sometimes even close to 94 feet — and gap help was routine. And although that helped generate 41 opponent turnovers (for 30 points) through two exhibition games, it also led to 58 fouls.
(According to Yahoo Sports’ Nekias Duncan, the Tempo’s average pick-up distance through the pre-season was 57.7 feet, more than 10 feet higher than the Sun’s league-leading mark of 47.5 feet last year. We’ll have to wait and see if that type of pressure can be maintained.)
After Toronto’s loss to the Minnesota Lynx, Brondello — voted the coach who’ll make the biggest impact with their new team on the WNBA’s GM survey — noted that “foul discipline” was an area she’d like to see cleaned up moving forward, while also making note of the many backcuts that had been allowed throughout the night due to miscommunications on rotations.
In asking the bench boss how much of that is a result of players needing to acclimate to a system that requires so much cohesion, she acknowledged that “there’s so much learning going on in this short period of time,” but was also confident that “we’ve got the personnel that we can be really aggressive defensively.”
“What kind of shots do we want to give up, know who we’re guarding and making sure that we’re all connected … so there is clarity in how we play defence, and in the end, it’s just making sure five players operating together on a string and playing as hard as they can.
Sykes, who was voted as the WNBA’s most athletic player and second-best perimeter defender by GMs across the league, echoed that sentiment: “(The defensive miscues) we had in Minnesota, that’s a chemistry thing. That’s knowing, OK, I might have a my teammate to the side of me who probably isn’t that quick as me laterally, let me be in help a little bit more for that person. Whereas I might be a strong defender on ball. Probably don’t have to help that much on me … I think we all have the intention to be great defenders, but we obviously are true about our tendencies, but that’s where we help, where we talk about it in practice.”
Time will tell if Brondello’s squad can get in sync sooner rather than later, but if we continue to use the Raptors as a frame of reference, there are indications that it can be established even in the midst of action. After two weeks of the NBA regular season, for instance, Toronto’s defence ranked 24th, and it wasn’t until some fine-tuning that it shaped into what finished the year as a top-five unit.
Rookies rolling
After what can most accurately be described as a “Welcome to the W” outing for two of the Tempo’s rookies in their pre-season opener against the Connecticut Sun, both seem to be bouncing back well.
“I took BG (Brittney Griner) in on the first play, tried to drive in there and get a shot up, but she definitely blocked it … it was definitely a Welcome to the W moment,” Rice said with a smile when asked about her first WNBA experience.
After starting and struggling against Connecticut, the former Bruin came off the bench in Minnesota and appeared to find her attack angles much more comfortably. When she’s been able to carve out north-south driving lanes, Rice has proven she can make plays at the pro level. She finished with a steady 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting, with two rebounds, two assists and a steal on no turnovers against the Lynx.
Meanwhile, Teonni Key was able to make her first pro buckets against Minnesota after going scoreless against the Sun. The forward did foul out for a second consecutive game, however, but managed to generate some free throws and collect six rebounds before doing so. Listed at 6-foot-4.5, Key is one of the tallest players on a roster that lacks size in its frontcourt, so the rookie will certainly be called upon throughout her first WNBA season.
That she made the Opening Day roster despite being a second-round pick bodes well for the belief Brondello and the organization have in Key. I’ll also mention that on more than one occasion, she’s been one of the last players on the court following the open portion of practice that media are allowed to observe, putting in extra work that appears to be paying off.
Also, hell yeah, Laura Juskaite. Immediately popped when watching Tempo vs. Sun, and I'm glad she's earned a roster spot.
— Zulfi Sheikh (@zulfi_sheikh) May 7, 2026
Another “rookie” worth keeping an eye on is Maria Conde, who has yet to step on the court for the Tempo or any other WNBA team, despite bringing an abundance of pro experience from overseas.
The team’s leadership has dubbed her “one of the best players in all of Europe who’s never been in the WNBA.” On a squad that has put a good chunk of its focus on guard depth and front-court upside, having a reliable player on the wing who can score, facilitate and provide positional versatility — thanks to her length — on defence will certainly go a long way, the latter being an area the Spaniard feels she’s really shown development.
“I think I’ve grown into being a defensive player,” Conde told reporters after her first practice with the Tempo. ” … With my size and speed, and hopefully smartness of the game, I can adapt to whatever the team needs me to do. If that’s playing small ball, I will do that. If that’s playing big and setting screens, I would do that also.”
Joining Conde in making the jump from Europe is Laura Juskaite, who appears to be part of the Tempo’s rotation heading into her first WNBA season. The Lithuanian was one of Toronto’s most active and productive players against the Sun, racking up 10 points, three rebounds, four assists and two steals, while shooting 4-of-6 from the line. Juskaite showed real craft as a passer with a couple wrap-around dimes and a knack for hunting rebounds, which Brondello has mentioned will be a point of emphasis given the team’s lack of height (minus-five on the glass through the pre-season).
Juskaite started against the Lynx, and although she shot 2-of-10 for six points, she still managed to grab seven rebounds and two steals. If her touch up-close can continue to improve, her ability to slash and attack closeouts in Brondello’s five-out system could lead to some very productive outings for the rookie.
“Sh*t, yeah, turnovers”
Leave it to the always well-spoken Sykes to provide a simple, yet meaningful response when asked what specific area the team is working to overcome, or at least build consistency around.
Sykes noted that for a team with so little chemistry given their circumstances, mistakes like turnovers will happen, but it’s all about making “that sh*t with complete confidence, that way we know how to fix it on the back end instead of it being an in-between gray area.”
And the 10-year vet has a point, that within Brondello’s pace-and-space scheme, moving the ball and generating looks for teammates is part of the protocol, and heavy ball-movement systems are often prone to more miscues. (The head coach noted she’d like her team to post approximately 20 assists per game on average.)
It’s ultimately a matter of what kind of turnovers are being made and how they’re being limited on the backend. Through two exhibition games, the Tempo committed 35 turnovers for 38 points. Although a two-game sample is undoubtedly small, for context’s sake, their average of 17.5 giveaways was two turnovers greater than the Chicago Sky’s league-leading mark from 2025.
“Finish or find”
There’s been plenty said about Brondello’s system and how it fits the Tempo’s guard-heavy roster. And while it’s hardly reached its final form through just a couple of pre-season games, I asked the bench boss about what she’s seen from the offence, especially what appears to be a three-point-heavy attack.
“I thought the first game, when we had 30 threes, I think that’s great,” she said. “I love threes as long as they’re great shots … But I also love getting to the rim as well, so it’s finish or find, being aggressive … we’ve got the capabilities there, so making sure everyone — where can we give space for our players to get downhill but also create for our shooters.”
Brondello — spoken like a true advocate of modern hoops — joked that as long as it helps win games, she “loves all of it,” except for long-twos, which she would “eradicate” if possible.
The bench boss also noted that having Marina Mabrey healthy and in the mix on Friday — after missing both pre-season games due to a back injury — will certainly help the Tempo’s offensive execution.
Not only is the guard one of Toronto’s highest-paid players and de facto leaders, but she was also one of the league’s highest-volume three-point shooters last year, as one of just four players taking at least seven attempts from beyond the arc. Although Mabrey’s 27.0 per cent conversion rate ranked lowest of the bunch, and was also a career-low mark.
The hope is that it can be considered an outlier given she’s a career 34.7 per cent shooter from distance, and that the Tempo plan to let it fly this upcoming season. At least that’s the indication from pre-season — their 27.5 attempts from deep per game would’ve ranked fourth-highest in the WNBA last season. Conversion obviously matters as well, however, so it’s worth noting that the team’s 31.0 per cent clip (through two games) would’ve been third-lowest.