Expansion franchises are seen as the epitome of growth for the league. A level of newness that doesn’t just mean the inclusion of a new city, but that also recognizes a new height the league has reached as a whole. Expansion is a marker of success.
But as the Golden State Valkyries, and now Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire, have shown, the growth doesn’t end with the team announcement or when the new logo is revealed, the beauty of expansion continues into the decisions made while building of the team and even into the season. What expansion lends itself to, more than just the celebration of a new team joining the league, is the creation of a new type of space for players — often veterans who’ve been overlooked by other teams — to thrive.
With two teams joining the W in one year, and because of how many free agents were available this offseason, this idea of expansion teams as a new ground for player development and growth came to life.
The Tempo’s winning vision
Toronto knew it wanted to find a way to win early, and buy-in from staff, free agents, and drafted players meant that goal could become a reality.
When head coach Sandy Brondello, who is the winningest coach in the history of each of the two teams she coached previously (New York and Phoenix), chose Toronto as her next home, it was because she saw the ways an expansion franchise in Canada wouldn’t just be a historic new step for the league, but a new challenge and opportunity for her to expand her own coaching and team building abilities.
“I had a few options there, but in the end, I was really intrigued about starting from the very beginning and building something with really good people and in a different country,” Brondello said at the press conference where she was announced.
“This is Canada’s team, and I thought that would be very exciting. And I’m up for every challenge. You know I’ve, like you said, I’ve won a few championships there, but I think this is just a little different situation, obviously, that a lot of the players now are free agents.”
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Through the first quarter of the season, Brondello has been instrumental in helping her veteran players reach new levels of their game. Players like Marina Mabrey, Nyara Sabally and Brittney Sykes, who have been overlooked by teams in the past and left unprotected for the expansion draft, became two of the new cornerstones on which she would build her lineup.
Sabally and Sykes have each already reached new career highs in scoring through the first 15 games — with Sykes having already tied that new high of 38 a second time — while Mabrey received an Eastern Conference Player of the Week award, something she hadn’t won once over her first eight seasons.
With this many veterans finding this much success through expansion, it can’t be seen as a simple coincidence.
Marina Mabrey to the max
Mabrey knows what it’s like to play a big role in the WNBA. In both her time with the Chicago Sky and with the Connecticut Sun, she was counted on as a key offensive contributor. Yet, through these first games with Toronto, she’s taken that role and her game to a new, expanded level.
Over her eight years in the league, the 3-point shooting star had never been named player of the week, that is, until she earned the honor this season with the Tempo.
“Grateful that my teammates trust me and depend on me, and they found me in open spots, they set screens for me, obviously, like this award wouldn’t happen if all of my teammates weren’t bought in. So, I feel like we won Conference Player of the Week,” Mabrey said after winning the accolade. “But I’m just like grateful, because I know I put a lot of time in individuality too, and it’s the first time in my career, and it’s been eight years.”
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Mabrey recognizes the impact the Tempo team as a whole has had on her success, and how the expansion franchise has provided her with new opportunities as a player, whether because her role has increased or because the roles of her teammates of increased likewise.
“It’s cool that we’re an expansion team, and I’ve been in kind of a role like this before, but not to the extent that I am right now. So, just having that self-trust and leaning on the people that did pick you to be here and do believe in you, and those are the best spots to kind of place your energy, Mabrey said.
“There’s always going to be people that say you can’t play, but like, I really don’t care.”
Nyara Sabally stepping up
Nyara Sabally has also found another level in 2026.
The three-year veteran struggled through injuries in her first couple seasons in the league, and although her health has sidelined her a few times this season, she’s still showing just how impactful she can be in a new environment.
As a big part of the New York Liberty’s game five Finals win in 2024, her capacity to influence a game is something Brondello has long known to be true, yet that capacity seems to have expanded here in Toronto.
“For me personally, I felt like it was definitely like a bigger role I need to step into. I mean, for me, it’s kind of different, because I have the same coaches I had in the previous team, so the kind of trust that they have in me they already had last year or the years before that, so it’s a little bit different in that aspect, but just kind of like seeing more minutes, obviously, and being able to utilize in those minutes,” Sabally said.
Sabally hit a new career-high 29 points on May 27 against the Sky, and almost doubled her previous high of 16 points. In her last two games, she’s flirted with that previous career-high again. She had 15 points in both the Tempo’s second win over the Sky and their victory over the Connecticut Sun.
“She still hasn’t played a lot of basketball because of her injuries, but she’s got so much upside. So, I think she’s getting this opportunity, she’s a key member of this team at both ends of the floor,” Brondello said of Nyara’s impact.
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Brittney Sykes is readying for her turn
Brittney Sykes, now in her 10th season, yet still growing her game, could not be more direct about the impact of expansion.
“There’s others like Marina and myself, where we’ve just been kind of undervalued on teams that we’ve been on, and then boom, we get an opportunity to have a clean slate, to have people who came and wanted to get us, because they know that we have all these assets as part of us, not just what people have seen in the last however many years.”
For Sykes, it’s not just about the new team, it’s about the entire atmosphere that comes with such an opportunity.
“It’s one of those things where you go out there with no pressure, you go out there with the supreme confidence, and they’re just pushing you, like, ‘go, go, do what you do,'” she said.
“That helps a heap, that helps so much, because it takes that pressure off of you, that ‘oh man, it’s finally my go,’ and you’re shaking, and it’s like, ‘no, it’s my turn, like I’m standing straight up, I’m standing tall on the fact that I could go do this.'”
Sykes has certainly been standing tall in this new role. She hit a new career high on May 17 against the Sparks when she scored 38 points, and then two weeks later, reached that mark again with 38 points against the Sky. She’s averaging the third most points in the league, only after A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum, and has used her leadership to elevate teammates alongside her, too.
