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Toronto Tempo

Ever since they were announced as an expansion team, they've been taking their followers through the "process" of working out their identity. Those posts, and the evidence of better names that were rejected, have now all been archived. They say they had over 10,000 submissions for name suggestions, and I'm 100% sure "Tempo" was not the most popular submission.

Somehow "Tempo" was the best they could come up with. Nothing that connects to the Raptors. Doesn't feel connected to Toronto or Canada either. It's just a word that starts with "T".

And then there's the logo…

It's incedibly generic, feeling more like a fan concept for an Indiana Pacers secondary logo, than the primary logo for the first Canadian WNBA team.

The dark maroon and light icy blue colour palette is insteresting, but it neither adds nor substracts from the identity as a whole.

Overall if feels like a name that would be at home in the new Unrivalled 3x3 comp, or the G-League, and a logo that's not worth of either of those. Big opportunity missed.

Melbourne United

When the Melbourne Tigers rebranded as Malbourne United a decade it wasn't the most popular decision. Honestly I still don't entirely understand it given that the Tigers were an iconic part of the NBL for so long.

The new logo is a little more grown up, they've refined the "M" icon, fully introduced the brighter cobalt blue what they'd already been using in brand elements and jerseys for a few years, and dialled up the prominence of the "United" name (I never liked how it was abbreviated as "Utd." on the original logo).

They've also included a representation of Bunjil (a wedge-tailed eagle, pays respect to First Nations peoples, particularly the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people) at the bottom of the new logo (and also a version as a standalone secondary logo), which to be honest you're probably going to miss unless you read their marketing material on the brand refresh.

Golden State Valkyries

Unlike Toronto, Golden State chose to go with a name and overall vibe that aligned with their borther-team the Warriors in the NBA.

They made it their own with the V-shaped crest and distinct black and lilac colour scheme. I really expected them to use the same colours as the Warriors, but the black/lilac is quite nice.

Overall the stretch of the Valkyries name and the logo really drive home how poor Toronto's newly revealed effort is. But not to be outdone, the Valkyries reveleaed their inaugral jerseys, and tried to go with the "big logo in the middle" approach of the Warriors and it doesn't really work. The combo of big central logo, sponsor centered below, and number off to the side makes them look a bit haphazard. Maybe they could have tried to work the number into the logo like the Warriors do, but it would have been cramped, a better option would be to have not included the full logo (the wordmakr on its own is strong enough), and instead used the logo as a more subtle design element.

Also don't really like the white trim on the black jersey. I would have gone full lilac-on-black, and lilac-on-white (or maybe black-on-white) for the two jerseys. They've still got their third jersey to reveal at a later date, so fingers-crossed they are a completely lilac jersey with black trim and details.

Las Vegas Aces

Fresh off back-to-back WNBA Championships the Las Vegas Aces have completely uncessarily refreshed their brand.

The Aces have had one of the best colour palettes in the league with their 'very Vegas' black/gold/red, and ownership has decided "nah, let's just make them black and grey".

You might ask why, and that's fair, I think most people are, but the reason is simply because their owner Mark Davis also owns the Las Vegas Raiders of the NFL. I didn't say it was a good reason.

It does look like they might still keep a red jersey in their rotation for the coming season which is one small thing to cling to I guess.

Maybe more interestingly this returns the team to the colours they wore from 2003 to 2017 while they were the San Antionio Stars/Silver Stars.

LA Clippers

I had been very worried that the Clippers were going to move into their massive new shiny arena next season with their currently awful brand, thankfully that's not the case.

They have returned the nautical imagery to their logo set ... yes Internet, a Clipper is a ship, it's shocking how many basketball fans, even Clippers' fans apparently didn't know that.

The front-on angle of the ship they chose for the primary logo is a little odd, but it is at least a ship, and there is also the compass elemetns that they're worked into each of the logos in the new set.

Along with the logos they've also refreshed the jerseys, reinstating a modernised-version of the classic 'Clippers' script across the chest, and an updated colour set with a new darker blue, red, and a lighter/brighter blue as a highlight colour. I do wish they've gone with baby blue and and a more orangey-red, but can't win 'em all.