Toronto Tempo shopping future first-round pick ahead of WNBA trade deadline
· Yahoo Sports
The Toronto Tempo are in the market for a young post player.
Canada’s expansion team has been actively shopping a future first-round draft pick since the start of the season to acquire a frontcourt standout they can pair with their dynamic backcourt, according to multiple league sources, speaking anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss a deal that was not yet finalized. In fact, trade proposals have been sent to two teams — the Los Angeles Sparks and the Connecticut Sun — but have to this point been turned down. The offer to the Sun was made earlier in the season, while the offer made to Los Angeles was more recent, these sources said.
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The Tempo, who are 10-16 and four games behind the Washington Mystics for the eighth and final playoff spot coming out of the All-Star break, are not necessarily making a push for the playoffs. Injuries to frontcourt players Isabelle Harrison and Temi Fagbenle have limited them. But the Tempo are being aggressive as the Aug. 2 trade deadline approaches in search of the right franchise-level post player who could be a long-term asset. They would join a nucleus that includes rookie guard Kiki Rice, Marina Mabrey and Brittney Sykes. Both Mabrey and Sykes have signed multiyear deals.
The Sparks have one young star who fits that billing in third-year forward Cameron Brink, who they drafted with the second pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. Brink was limited in her first two seasons after suffering a torn ACL in her left knee during her rookie campaign. She missed the first half of the 2025 season as she recovered from that injury.
This season Brink is averaging 9.1 points and 4.4 rebounds while playing less than 20 minutes per game coming off the bench. She’s only started one game for the Sparks in 2026.
The Connecticut Sun, meanwhile, have a lot of positional overlap, specifically at forward. Aaliyah Edwards is an interesting target as she hails from Kingston, Ontario. Edwards was selected in the same draft class as Brink with the sixth pick by the Washington Mystics, where she played her rookie season before being traded to the Sun at last year’s deadline. She is averaging 9.4 points and 3.8 rebounds in her third season in the WNBA.
The 2026 season is the Sun’s last in Connecticut before they will relocate to Houston, where they will be renamed the Houston Comets.
The WNBA Draft lottery odds are cumulative, based on the last two seasons of the teams that fail to make the playoffs. However, the odds for Toronto and fellow expansion franchise Portland are based on this year alone. Because of the Tempo’s current odds for the 2027 pick if the season were to end today, it makes more sense that the Tempo would be willing to shop the 2028 pick. However, forfeiting the 2028 pick comes with risk because of the talent in that class, namely UConn forward Sarah Strong, the 2026 Naismith Player of the Year.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Los Angeles Sparks, Connecticut Sun, Toronto Tempo, WNBA
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