How WNBA's Toronto Tempo can learn from expansion sister Golden State, 95' Raptors

The WNBA's Toronto Tempo are alive — sort of.

Set to join the league as an expansion team in 2026, the franchise revealed its nickname, logos and colours earlier in December.

Yet the team remains, largely, an idea — one that won't be realized until there are players.

"Oh, won't that be fun? We get to talk about the game we love — soon and very soon, right? Now that we have a name, that's next up," president Teresa Resch said in an interview with CBC Sports.

Resch added that she hopes to have a general manager in place early in the new year who will lead the basketball side of operations.

Meanwhile, as Golden State sets to enter the league in 2025 — one year ahead of Toronto and expansion sister Portland — it selected its first group of players in the expansion draft last Friday one day after the Tempo reveal.

The Valkyries will continue adding through free agency, which begins Feb. 1, and in April's entry draft, where they hold the fifth pick.

How Golden State's roster looks on May 16, the date of its home opener, should be instructive for the Tempo as they embark on a similar process over the next 18 months.

Glen Grunwald, an assistant GM for the expansion Toronto Raptors in 1995, said the goal should be to develop a basketball identity for the Tempo, then choose players who fit within that structure.

He said the Raptors began planning for the expansion draft over a year in advance.

"We had a simulated draft when the normal entry draft happened the year before. We set up our own little draft room with our scouts and our staff there, participating as if we had a draft choice just to make sure that we were getting up to speed in terms of how we were going to operate from a player personnel perspective," Grunwald said.

"An