The Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire will officially kick off their inaugural seasons this week. While both teams will often be mentioned together under the same breath as the two new expansion teams, the paths that they have taken to building their respective teams couldn’t be more different.
What holds for the future of these two expansion franchises? We break down the dramatically different approaches these two teams took to building their teams this offseason and their best and worst case outlooks for this season (and into the future).
Portland Fire
The Portland Fire began their team-building process by selecting mostly young players with potential in the expansion draft, bookended by Bridget Carleton and Carla Leite (who is also young but showed in her rookie season that she is a starter-level point guard worthy of more minutes and responsibility).
Next, in the rookie draft, the Fire further drafted Iyana Martin Carrion from Spain who is slated to not come over to the WNBA until next season. They also drafted Frieda Buhner, another international player in the second round.
Finally, the Fire had a relatively quiet offseason, signing two role players in Karlie Samuelson and Megan Gustafson.
Portland’s Best Case Scenario
For their inaugural season, the Fire will be looking for their younger players to develop and hope that some will have breakthrough seasons. Carla Leite, for example, will have an opportunity to put up big numbers and command the offense from day one. Nyadiew Puoch, a first-round pick in 2024, spent the last couple of seasons playing in the WNBL in Australia where she impressed with her exceptional athleticism and length. She will have lots of runway to grow her game in Portland. Finally, look for Sarah Ashlee Barker and Luisa Geiselsoder to take on bigger roles and elevate their production.
Realistically though, the Fire are playing for the future. Some have even wondered if this is the team’s way of posturing to get to the number 1 draft pick in either the 2027 and/or the 2028 WNBA draft with the chance of drafting Juju Watkins in ‘27 and/or Sarah Strong in ‘28. If the Fire land the number one pick in either season, the opportunity to draft a franchise-changing player will make any and all losses this season worth the patient approach.
Portland’s Worst Case Scenario
If some of the Fire’s young talent translates their potential into productivity and the team is not as bad as other teams that might also be playing for the future (see Connecticut Sun) OR if the draft lottery Gods are not on their side, Portland might not end up winning the Juju Watkins derby. While there is plenty of talent available in the 2027 WNBA Draft, not getting Juju would be a massive disappointment.
Toronto Tempo
The Toronto Tempo, on the other hand, have taken swing after swing in this very short offseason. This includes the signing of coach Sandy Brondello – one of the winningest coaches in WNBA history – months before the CBA was signed.
The expansion draft saw the Tempo select a top-30 player in Marina Mabrey along with older players with experience, including Julie Allemand, Kitija Laksa, Maria Conde, and Nikolina Milic.
In the rookie draft, Toronto selected Kiki Rice with the 6th pick, who played a huge role in helping UCLA win the NCAA National Championship only a week before the draft.
The swings continued in the offseason, where Toronto signed another top-30 player and 2025 all-star, Brittney Sykes, and tried to lure restricted free agent, Shakira Austin, from the Washington Mystics (which the Mystics matched so Austin will remain a member of the Mystics).
The Tempo didn’t stop there. They filled the roster with even more veterans in Temi Fagbenle, Isabelle Harrison, and Canadian basketball royalty, Kia Nurse.
For any Tempo fans that wanted to hit the inaugural season ground running, Toronto did just that.
Toronto’s Best Case Scenario
While it would be unrealistic to expect Toronto to compete for a championship, the Tempo have made it clear that they want to compete and make the playoffs in their inaugural season. They will certainly have a chance but the league is deep and the road won’t be easy. Judging by the first two preseason games (and take that with a big grain of salt), a lot of work is needed for this team to come together and gel, especially on offense. However, Toronto has the talent to be competitive every night. More importantly, if the attention received thus far has been any indication, this team has a chance to capture the hearts and minds of fans across the country.
In the future, the infrastructure that the Tempo are building, along with the success in a market like Toronto, might also help to lure a marquee free agent in the next few seasons.
Toronto’s Worst Case Scenario
All the big swings that Toronto also comes with some significant risk. Yes, both Sykes and Mabrey are top-30 players, but can you win meaningful games against top tier teams with a good (potentially very good) but not great team?
If not, the Tempo run the risk of being a team stuck in WNBA purgatory (i.e. the middle of the standings, where you aren’t good enough to win a championship and not bad enough to be able to have high draft picks in future rookie drafts).
We also wonder if the big contracts given to Sykes, Mabrey, and Fagbenle can result in positive or equal value in the future if the Tempo looks to trade these players.
From a future standpoint, Portland may have positioned themselves into a cleaner path towards finding long-term success while there is real risk of swinging and missing from Toronto.
Nevertheless, this is year 1 of a long and prosperous franchise. Rather than dwelling on future strategy, we urge fans (especially sickos like us) to enjoy the ride this season!
