{"id":824858,"date":"2026-08-31T15:24:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T15:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/824858\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T15:24:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T15:24:18","slug":"tempo-check-because-its-the-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/824858\/","title":{"rendered":"Tempo Check: Because it\u2019s the (World) Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

The FIBA Women\u2019s World Cup break is finally here, mercifully so for the last-place Toronto Tempo (11-29). While several players (Julie Allemand – Belgium, Maria Conde – Spain, and Nyara Sabally – Germany) and coaches (head coach Sandy Brondello leads Australia and associate head coach Olaf Lange helms Germany) are off to Germany for the tournament, it\u2019s an opportunity for the rest of the team to regather itself. Assistant coach Brian Lankton will lead team activities for those still in Toronto, per TSN\u2019s Chelsea, Leite<\/a>, but realistically, the season is just about over.<\/p>\n

Toronto looked the part of a last-placed team over the weekend, falling 93-73 to the Las Vegas Aces on Friday night before an even more lacklustre performance in a 101-69 loss to the Phoenix Mercury on Saturday. An expansion team losing both games of a back-to-back against last year\u2019s finalists isn\u2019t necessarily unexpected, but it\u2019s all the more so as Toronto plays without a large chunk of its roster. The Tempo\u2019s injury report is full nightly: the team has missed the third-most games to injury of any franchise this season, per The IX\u2019s injury tracker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also relatively to be expected since Toronto has an eye toward securing high odds<\/a> in next season\u2019s draft lottery. As a reminder, four games remain for the Tempo upon the league\u2019s return from the World Cup break on September 17, and losing all four would see Toronto secure at least a share of the top lottery odds and a chance to land presumptive top pick JuJu Watkins. It\u2019s not that the team isn\u2019t trying; it\u2019s just that the team is situationally aware, as it recognizes the trajectory of the season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Just because it doesn\u2019t benefit the Tempo to win their last four games (home vs. Indiana and New York, away at Chicago and Connecticut) doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t other wins to collect in the last stretch of the season. Chief among these is player development, in which Toronto seems to have found a future star in Kiki Rice<\/a> and on which the team can focus with the need to win now removed. Developmental players Ornella Bankole and Zaay Green both played real minutes over the weekend, as did extreme hardship signing Kiana Williams (for the Tempo\u2019s purposes, a chance to evaluate her) and second-round pick Teonni Key.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s focus on Key\u2019s offensive development. The 23-year-old Kentucky product, part of the Tempo\u2019s heavily utilized rookie cohort, is one of the roster\u2019s youngest players and also one of its tallest (six-five). Key has been the fourth big on the depth chart behind Sabally, Temi Fagbenle, and Isabelle Harrison.<\/p>\n

I suspect that Key\u2019s first appeal to the Tempo was\/is her defensive upside: Key\u2019s length and agility for her size offers high upside for a modern defensive big. She\u2019s flashed some of those traits as a rookie: Toronto has been 6.34 points per 100 possessions better defensively with Key on the court than off it, and, in part due to her 92nd-percentile block rate, the defence has conceded at-rim field goals at a 3.5 per cent lower efficiency with Key on the court than off it (pbpstats<\/a>). There\u2019s room to grow, naturally, from help decision-making and foul rates\u2014normal for young bigs\u2014to simply gaining more experience in the backend of professional pick-and-roll (she can lean into her athleticism to fake-step-and-recover more often).<\/p>\n

But Key\u2019s offence is the larger question as she heads to join Georgia Amoore and the WNBL\u2019s Perth Lynx<\/a> over the offseason. Three-point shooting is one thing: Key is 3\/19 (15.8 per cent) with the Tempo after shooting 13\/60 (21.7 per cent) in two years at Kentucky (she transferred from North Carolina). Free-throw shooting is another: just 52.6 per cent on 19 attempts in the WNBA after dropping to 69.8 per cent (96 FTA) as a senior from 77.4 per cent (84 FTA) as a junior (her professional 13.8 per cent FT Rate isn\u2019t far from her 15.8 per cent rate at Kentucky).<\/p>\n

Any playmaking answers Key provides will be welcomed as a bonus. Her assist and turnovers metrics are actually improvements on two Kentucky years of 0.6 assist-to-turnover ratios, sub-10 per cent assist rates, and ~20 per cent turnover rates. Key\u2019s overall low usage lessens her turnover impact, and there\u2019s a nice fit with Toronto\u2019s handoffs and zoom actions, but general growth as a connector and play-mover (flashed at times with the handoff game) wouldn\u2019t be amiss.<\/p>\n

Most important, perhaps, is Key\u2019s overall efficiency, which largely hinges on her two-point finishing. Her college trajectory was positive: she increased her points per possession every year in college, and she shot 66.1 per cent on \u201cclose 2s\u201d at Kentucky, per barttorvik<\/a>. But the trajectory of Key\u2019s 0.68 points per possession (2nd percentile) and two-point shooting (44.6 per cent 2P, 19th-percentile 55 per cent restricted area, per HerHoopStats) will be critical to maximizing her defensive impact as well as her plus offensive rebounding.<\/p>\n

I tracked 54 of 56 two-point field goals Key has taken this year to see what might be going on. That positive offensive rebounding (both personal and team impact) has led to points: she\u2019s scoring 1.25 points per shot generated by an offensive rebound. But on other self-created looks, the ball hasn\u2019t found its way to the bucket. Setting aside three midrange jumpers (33 per cent FG), Key is averaging 0.75 points per shot (37.5 per cent FG) on self-created attempts, not including two turnovers, and has struggled especially on drives (0.6 PPS\/30 per cent FG).<\/p>\n

She\u2019s made some impressive shots, but continuing to be discerning about how\u2014and whom\u2014she attacks in isolation will help. Of her 22 rim makes, 59.1 per cent have been assisted, which ranks 65th among 109 players with 40+ rim FGA, which is the fifth-lowest assist rate among bigs. A higher rate of those could raise her efficiency: on non-self created shots (cuts, rolls, rim attempts originating in the dunker spot, etc.), Key is up to 0.96 PPS (48.1 per cent FG).<\/p>\n

Again, the ability is there; the consistency can develop there too. Key ranks 93rd in that same 109-player sample size with a 62.9 per cent unblocked rim FG% (fourth-worst among bigs), meaning that there is low-hanging fruit to capitalize on and thereby easily boost the efficiency numbers. One other thing that might help: playing with a touch more patience. Of the 54 charted attempts, only one showed a semblance of a shot-fake; 12.5 per cent of her rim attempts have been blocked 21st of 109 and 6th-highest among players Key\u2019s height or taller. Short midrange attempts tell the same story: 30.8 per cent blocked, fifth in the 109-player sample size.<\/p>\n

The first clip, the could-be fake, at the very least enables Key to absorb contact from a smaller defender before finishing and also enables her to jump off two feet vertically; contrast with two attempts where I (very subjectively!) thought a fake might have been beneficial, either in diverting a shot blocker or in steadying the footwork after jump stops directly leading into the shot attempt.<\/p>\n

However Key can get them, fewer blocked attempts and more free throws would be excellent development. That\u2019s the sort of win the Tempo will prioritize to close out the season after the World Cup, and that\u2019s the sort of thing Key can work on over the long offseason to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FIBA Women\u2019s World Cup break is finally here, mercifully so for the last-place Toronto Tempo (11-29). While…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[7,6,681,680,476,44728,3820],"class_list":["post-824858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-raptors","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-raptors","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-raptors","tag-toronto-tempo","tag-torontoraptors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117190817847514624","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}