The Toronto Raptors have made it official. Bryan Colangelo is their new president and general manager.

The Raptors aimed for the top in hiring Colangelo, the NBA's 2005 executive of the year after the retooled Phoenix Suns won a league-high 62 games. The 40-year-old Colangelo spent 17 years with the Suns, the past 11 as general manager. In the 2004 off-season, he lured Canadian guard Steve Nash away from Dallas, and Nash went on to earn Most Valuable Player honours that season.

"I'm ready to branch out," Colangelo said during a news conference Tuesday. "I've got 15 very good years behind me with respect to what's gone on in Phoenix and my participation there . . . This is just the next step in what I hope to be a long and fortuitous career."

Colangelo steps into a favourable situation in Toronto. He will have salary cap room, roster spots, a good draft pick and a budding young star in Chris Bosh.

"There's just so many positive things about the opportunity that Wayne (interim GM and team adviser Wayne Embry) has established in terms of the cap flexibility and the ability to look at free agency in a different light and perhaps explore trade opportunities to acquire the necessary pieces," said Colangelo. "It's not unlike a team we had in Phoenix a couple years ago."

Look for Tim Thomas to go West after his buyout from Chicago, the Newark Star-Ledger is reporting, after Bulls GM John Paxson told agent Arn Tellem that he is determined to give Thomas the money he has left on his $14 million contract and allow him to become a free agent, but only if Thomas subsequently signs with San Antonio or Phoenix.

Although no agreement has been reached between Thomas and the Bulls, the latter have the upper hand with the March 1 deadline just around the corner.  Players who are not waived before Wednesday are not eligable for the playoffs.

So once again it comes down to money for Tim Thomas.  Does he take a lower buyout in exchange for full freedom in choosing a new team this season, or does he take all the money and become a Spur or Sun?

Suns owner Robert Sarver indicated he probably will not name an interim general manager now that the NBA trade deadline has passed and will divide up responsibilities among the existing staff until the summer.

Steve Kerr, Sarver's lead basketball adviser, said he is not interested in the general manager's job "for the foreseeable future," preferring instead to serve as a Sarver adviser.

Bryan Colangelo, Suns? President and General Manager, has resigned his position with the team.  

?Bryan has decided that his preference is to leave the Suns, and under those circumstances, we saw no other option other than to accept his decision, ? said Suns Managing Partner Robert Sarver in making the announcement.

?At the time we bought the team, we agreed to a new three-year contract with Bryan,? continued Sarver. ?Dating back to last summer, I assured Bryan of my intention to extend his contract. I?m disappointed with Bryan?s decision but I wish him well.?

?I couldn?t be more excited about the future of our team,? Sarver said. ?With Steve Nash, Shawn Marion, Amar? Stoudemire and Mike D?Antoni, our team continues to be headed in the direction of the goal we all share, creating sustainable success for the Phoenix Suns and winning an NBA Championship.?

?We will proceed methodically in deciding Bryan?s replacement but in the meantime we have a tremendous basketball staff in place and they will take on additional responsibilities in the interim.?

If the Toronto Raptors' efforts to coax Bryan Colangelo from the Phoenix Suns as their new president and general manager have been successful, they'll likely find out this morning.

Sources in Phoenix said the month-long courtship between the club and the National Basketball Association executive of the year has been completed, and it's up to Colangelo to choose.

"I can't imagine this going on beyond [Monday] morning," a source close to the Suns' executive told The Globe and Mail last night. "I anticipate that there's going to be a resolution."

According to a Raptors source: "It's a real tough decision and it's Bryan's to make, one way or the other."

Sources said that Colangelo was in communication with both Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment chairman Larry Tanenbaum and the Raptors' interim general manager, Wayne Embry, a close family friend of Colangelo, over the weekend as the Suns' imposed deadline of tomorrow looms nearer.

The Phoenix Suns announced today that center Kurt Thomas will miss a minimum of six-to-eight weeks with a stress fracture in his right foot.

The 11-year NBA veteran, who was one of only four Suns to not miss a game this season (Shawn Marion, Steve Nash, Boris Diaw) entering tonight?s game vs. the Charlotte Bobcats, is averaging 8.6 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.02 blocks in 26.6 minutes in 53 games in his first season with Phoenix in 2005-06.

The NBA's reigning executive of the year is expected to decide in the next day or so whether he will become the new president and general manager of the Toronto Raptors, and no one will be watching more closely than head coach Sam Mitchell.

Bryan Colangelo, the current president and GM of the Phoenix Suns, declined to discuss the Toronto job when contacted at his office yesterday.

"I hope you appreciate the situation, but I'm not in a position to discuss anything," Colangelo said, neither confirming nor denying that he's had talks with the Raptors. "It's a particularly sensitive area right now."

According to a Phoenix source, Colangelo is expected to decide by the end of this weekend whether to pursue the Raptors' position or remain with the Suns.

Shawn Marion started hearing a rumor last week that he would be traded for Minnesota's Kevin Garnett. He got calls to the point that he wondered whether it was true.

"It's frustrating," Marion said. "Me being in the situation how I am and how I approach this game and what I do for this team, it's frustrating just to hear that. It's always my name.

"Even though (Suns staffers) came and told me I wasn't going to be traded, I had to approach them first. I didn't like that."

"Shawn Marion's not going anywhere," D'Antoni said. "Arguably, he's a MVP candidate. Oh, yeah, let's trade him. That'd be stupid."

According to sources in Toronto, Raptors management is ?excited and optimistic? that Bryan Colangelo will soon become their team?s next president and general manager.

An aggreement could be in place as soon as Friday ? but Suns managing partner Robert Sarver says he will attempt to keep Colangelo in Phoenix.

Two sources said when Colangelo first told Sarver of Toronto?s interest, the Suns owner lost his temper and told Colangelo to get out of his office. Later, the sources said, Sarver told Colangelo he wasn?t interested in a contract extension and granted Colangelo?s request to talk to the Raptors.

Steve Kerr has been the most common name thrown out as a logical replacement, but it appears that the former sharpshooter isn't interested in the position.

Forget deals, Suns fans got a different kind of good news on Wednesday.

According to the Arizona Republic, Amare Stoudemire was able to give teammate Nikoloz Tskitishvili some one-on-one play with contact.  He made it through unscathed.

Because he was limited to shooting for two months, his perimeter game may be ahead of his inside game for now.

"My inside game is pretty much based on quickness and my quickness is back to where it was," Stoudemire said. "I've just got to get the explosiveness back and just get the feel back.

"I was getting more and more comfortable, not really favoring it, trying to get over that mental aspect and I felt pretty good toward the end."