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."