Kiki Rice's Impact on Toronto Tempo's Future
Toronto’s bruising debut season has looked less like an expansion campaign and more like a medical report.
Isabelle Harrison never really got out of the blocks. Nyara Sabally and Temi Fagbenle have bounced in and out of the rotation. Aneesah Morrow arrived at the trade deadline, gave them seven games of promise, then went down for the year. Brittney Sykes has barely cleared half a season. Kiki Rice lost almost all of June and July to an ankle sprain.
For a first-year franchise trying to plant roots, that’s a brutal roll of the dice.
Instead of chasing a playoff spot, the Toronto Tempo now find themselves staring at ping-pong balls and possibility, firmly in the race for the number-one pick in the 2027 WNBA Draft. With names like JuJu Watkins, Madison Booker, and Hannah Hidalgo looming, that’s not exactly a consolation prize. It’s a potential franchise reset.
But the day-to-day reality has been harsh. Toronto has only managed two wins across July and August. One was a shock upset of the New York Liberty. The other, an 82–79 escape against the Portland Fire that finally snapped a 12-game losing streak. Those are the kinds of nights that feel like events, not trends.
Amid the losses and the revolving door to the training room, one thing has started to cut through the gloom.
A point guard in fast-forward
Since returning from that ankle sprain about a month ago, Rice has looked like she hit the season’s reset button and skipped straight to the good part.
August has been her stage. She’s averaging 14 points on 50% shooting from the field, knocking down 37.5% of her threes. She’s adding 2.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game, and she’s doing it with remarkable composure: just 1.2 turnovers a night.
That efficiency jumps off the page for any guard, let alone a young one learning the league on a team constantly reshuffling its lineup. Seven straight games with at least 10 points. At least four assists in six of those. Never more than two turnovers in any of them. That’s not empty-calorie scoring; that’s a guard taking control of the game and respecting the ball.
About a week ago, after a nine-point loss to the Washington Mystics, Sandy Brondello didn’t bother with tempered language. She called Rice a franchise player.
On current evidence, that’s not hyperbole. It’s scouting.
Career night in a losing cause
Rice’s most emphatic statement came in a defeat.
Against the Seattle Storm, with Sykes and Marina Mabrey both sidelined, Rice shouldered almost everything. She poured in a career-high 24 points on 50% shooting, went a perfect 11-for-11 from the free-throw line, and rounded out the night with 3 rebounds, 5 assists, and a steal.
She ran the offense. She took on the defensive assignment of guarding Flau’jae Johnson. She still led all players in scoring.
The context matters. Seattle’s interior is no soft landing. Dominique Malonga, Awa Fam, and Ezi Magbegor form one of the most imposing paint-protecting trios in the league. Rice still went 5-for-9 inside the arc against that front line. Guards don’t just stroll into that kind of efficiency at the rim against that kind of size.
It was the sort of performance that doesn’t change the standings but absolutely changes the conversation.
Losing now, building next
The irony for Toronto is that Rice’s surge probably won’t rescue the record. Her late-season rise is unlikely to generate many more wins, and for the Tempo’s long-term outlook, that’s actually fine. The fewer wins now, the better the odds of landing that 2027 prize at the top of the draft.
What Rice is doing, though, is far more important than padding this year’s total. She’s compressing the rebuild.
She is already hinting at what a different 2027 could look like. Put a healthy Sykes back on the floor. Slot Mabrey alongside them. Add Rice, now playing with the poise and punch of a lead guard who understands the league’s pace and physicality. Then drop a lottery pick—potentially a blue-chip star—into that mix.
Suddenly, this expansion team doesn’t look like a long-term project. It looks like a foundation.
The injuries have defined Year 1 in Toronto. Kiki Rice is making a strong case that they won’t define Year 2.
