![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778070669_870_default.jpg\")
Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello talks to players during a time out in a preseason game against the Connecticut Sun on April 29 in Toronto. (Bailey McLean Getty Images)<\/p>\nToronto Tempo star Marina Mabrey remains somewhat of a mystery.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s core player, signed to a max two-year, $2.4 million US contract in April, missed both pre-season games with a back injury, but is expected to be ready for the Tempo’s first regular season game Friday against the Washington Mystics.<\/p>\n
Mabrey has been courtside at Toronto Raptors games and spoken publicly on multiple occasions, but has yet to wear the Tempo jersey in a game.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s allow her former Connecticut Sun coach, Rachid Meziane, to explain a little more.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s crazy. I mean, crazy in a good way,\u201d Meziane said. \u201cShe is someone that\u2019s easy to love because she plays with a lot of energy and she\u2019s a competitive player. She is someone who likes to win and she will do everything on the floor to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which is exactly what the Tempo are aiming to do in their inaugural season.<\/p>\n
The team, which announced a landmark national broadcasting deal with Bell Media on Tuesday, is built in its star player\u2019s image.<\/p>\n
Followers of the WNBA will remember Mabrey from her scuffle with Caitlin Clark last season. She\u2019s had similar dust-ups with other stars like Diana Taurasi and Skylar Diggins-Smith.<\/p>\n
On the court, few are more competitive. It takes opponents by surprise.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe can be a scorer, she can be the facilitator, she is a good player, so you are lucky to have her,\u201d Meziane said.<\/p>\n
Mabrey, for her part, seems to be staying even keel for now on her expectations in Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think just being patient. There\u2019s standards and little details we want to meet \u2014\u00a0being on time, running our sets, being in the right spots and gaps defensively, things like that, where those start to add up to wins,\u201d Mabrey said during training camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when you expect something right away to be put together, that\u2019s sort of unrealistic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unrealistic \u2014 until it isn\u2019t. After all, it was just last season that the Golden State Valkyries became the first team to reach the playoffs in their first season.<\/p>\n
Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello allowed for a little more imagination than Mabrey on her expectations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWin the day. Get better every single day. Don\u2019t take too many steps backwards. We are an expansion team, so we have realistic expectations there, but with time, what kind of team can we look like?\u201d Brondello said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then having a little bit more information of what we have, what do we need as we move forward. But being adaptable and flexible. I\u2019m not rigid in how we\u2019re gonna coach. Lean into the players, what they feel and see out there as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
No one is necessarily expecting the Tempo to compete for a championship in Year 1, but president Teresa Resch and general manager Monica Wright Rogers did not build the franchise with an eye strictly toward the future.<\/p>\n
Consensus among league experts has the Tempo in the mix to make like the Valkyries and reach the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Brondello, a two-time champion coach, isn\u2019t the stereotypical developmental leader of a young team. In fact, she compared herself to four-time NBA champion coach Steve Kerr.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve both won. We\u2019ve been in every situation as a player, so I think that kind of helps us understand the situation players are in and learning your role, whatever that may be. I like his style, giving freedom to my players to do who they are and try to put them in the best spots they can be in,\u201d Brondello said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think my record speaks for itself. I\u2019ve always had pretty good offensive teams with great players and that\u2019s obviously the challenge now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello talks to players during a time out in a preseason game against the Connecticut Sun on April 29 in Toronto. (Bailey McLean Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Brondello\u2019s offensive system has been described as space and pace. Veteran guard Brittney Sykes said it is less structural and more reading the defence and reacting accordingly.<\/p>\n
It will likely involve plenty of three-point attempts \u2014 the team put up 55 of them in two pre-season games, a rate that would have placed fourth in the league last year, right in line with Brondello\u2019s New York Liberty.<\/p>\n
Mabrey put up seven per game herself last season, one of only four players to reach that mark, though Brondello will surely want to see her accuracy rise from last year\u2019s outlier 27 per cent. Mabrey shoots 34.7 per cent from deep for her career and sat above that mark in four of five previous seasons.<\/p>\n
Alongside top expansion pick Julie Allemand, Mabrey received votes in the WNBA GM survey released Tuesday as player most likely to have a breakout season.<\/p>\n
The only Tempo player to finish first in any survey question was Sykes, who had 31 per cent of the vote on \u201cWhich player is the most athletic?\u201d She was also voted the second-best perimeter defender in the league.<\/p>\n
Sykes, 32, is a two-time steals leader, which should fit well with Brondello\u2019s aggressive defensive scheme. Her 14.1 points per game last season ranked second on the Tempo to Mabrey\u2019s 14.4.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know what we can do offensively. It\u2019s defensively that if we\u2019re having a bad night, teams cannot score. That has to be the goal,\u201d Sykes said.<\/p>\n
Sykes, Mabrey, Allemand and Canada\u2019s Kia Nurse make up the veteran core of the team, but there are plenty of younger talents also, including forwards Nyara Sabally and Temi Fagbenle.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also guard Kiki Rice of UCLA, who was selected sixth overall with the Tempo\u2019s first-ever entry-draft selection.<\/p>\n
WATCH | Tempo make Rice 1-ever draft pick:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778070670_670_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Toronto Tempo select UCLA’s Kiki Rice with their 1st WNBA draft pick<\/p>\n
The WNBA draft took place Monday in New York City and Toronto Tempo selected UCLA’s Kiki Rice in the sixth pick in the opening round.<\/p>\n
Brondello said Rice had her \u201cwelcome to the WNBA\u201d moment in her first pre-season game, but the team has been impressed by her competitiveness and poise through training camp \u2014 a theme among the younger group, per Mabrey.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re aggressive, they\u2019re yelling, they\u2019re screaming, they\u2019re getting stops. The competitiveness I\u2019m shocked about because sometimes when [young players] first come in, they\u2019re baby deer-ish, but they\u2019re full of personality,\u201d Mabrey said.<\/p>\n
Similarly, even while there\u2019s been some public tip-toeing around the Tempo\u2019s goals this season, it is not hard to parse what they may have in mind.<\/p>\n
This is a team that understands all that comes with an inaugural season and acknowledges the tough road ahead. It\u2019s also one that\u2019s willing to take it head-on.<\/p>\n
\u201cBe quick,\u201d Brondello said, \u201cbut don\u2019t hurry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto Tempo star Marina Mabrey remains somewhat of a mystery. The team\u2019s core player, signed to a max…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-626822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}