Say this for Bryan Colangelo: He's always willing to try things.

As president and general manager of the Toronto Raptors he has made moves and unmade them, hired coaches and fired them, added some players and sent some away, made bold moves and subtle ones. Won some. Lost some.

And now, in his fifth season leading the club, there is heat under his seat, fuelled by a perception among basketball people that this is the worst Raptors team he's ever assembled. Colangelo counters, during a wide-ranging sit-down with the Star on his philosophies, influences and decisions, that win, lose or go free agency, this may well be a group that, more than previous editions, actually cares.

“At some degree, it pains me to feel that this is the perception of this team, but at the same time it puts us in a position to prove people otherwise and it gives us something to play for,” Colangelo says. “It gives a young, prideful, energetic and enthusiastic group something to shoot for. It's a fresh approach, much more so than a team that just expects to be good and goes out and doesn't play hard night in and night out. And it's more of a team that's ideally suited for Jay (head coach Triano) to continue to grow with as a coach.

“Already you can see a different approach from him, you can see a different approach and effect, positive effect, that that's had on the team and how this team plays together, how they like each other, how they're, again, more enthusiastic about the process. I think at the end of the day — again, we were probably a team last year that I would argue was a 50-win team that missed the playoffs and underperformed — this year we absolutely are a team that has lower expectations but will need to overperform to make the playoffs.

“Whether or not we make the playoffs is an unknown; again, there is no expectation. I would personally like to think that we are driving for that as a goal and I think that should be the goal each and every time we step on the floor.”

Colangelo arrived in Toronto in February 2006, hailed as some kind of saviour for a franchise on a downward plane. He was an NBA executive of the year, an accomplished basketball mind, a businessman and scion of one of the pioneers of the league.

“I would have to say my father, Jerry Colangelo ... pretty much taught me the ropes of the business. Talk about having access to a great mentor and someone to learn from. Just about everything that I do know with respect to my job, I can look back and say I've experienced it at some point. There is obviously your occasional surprise and each and every year you turn the page and it's a new team, new cast of characters. The characters are different but the story's the same.”

But was it hard being Jerry's son, in some respects?

“Yes and no. A lot of things that actually probably helped me be better as a person and hopefully in my position you learn some things, like nobody was going to hand me things. I had to earn it and even after earning it, there was, on occasion, talk of something else.

One of the boldest moves Colangelo made was elevating Jay Triano from assistant to interim head coach when Sam Mitchell was fired in December 2008. Triano had never been an NBA head coach. He was — gasp — a Canadian and the criticism was loud. But Colangelo saw something in Triano that he liked and the coach is now in the second year of a three-year contract he signed in May 2009.

“First of all, I'm not sure his background or his nationality has anything to do with him being selected as the coach. I think in this business, the head coach and the general manager need to be together. There could be moments of natural tension, and there have been moments even with Jay and I of natural tension. It's good, it's healthy to have that because this is a learning business, you're always learning something new. I don't profess to know everything about the game, and I'm not sure Jay professes to know everything about what I do about putting the team together, but the two elements have to come together for it to have, in my mind, productivity.

“I haven't necessarily won that elusive championship — lots haven't – but I've had my share of success along the way and I felt like Jay was the right coach for this team at the time and I still feel that way.”

Staying the course with a coach is one thing. Making roster changes is another, and in Colangelo's case, he's not afraid to reshuffle the deck.

“I just don't think you can ever be afraid in a position of decision-making. Being a key decision-maker in a process, you've got to be willing to put yourself out there, subject to criticism, subject to failure, subject to success. You can't be afraid of what the consequences may be because it could influence your thought process. You have to make decisions based on a philosophy and principles that would lead you to believe it's the right decision. And if something does go wrong, if it's the wrong or incorrect decision, I think I have a knack for making due.

“A perfect example was the failed experiment with Hedo Turkoglu. It didn't work out and rather than sit around and try to beat my head against the wall and make it work, it was pretty clear that ship had sailed so we needed to make a deal to salvage what we could and you could argue that we got a younger player, a better player — or contributor, let me soften that — and tremendous financial relief, short term and long term.

“It worked out in a favourable way for us. I love the fact that there was even more knowledge with respect to who the individual was, what kind of key character guy was coming in, and thus far Leandro (Barbosa) has been a great fit for this team.”

Ah, Turkoglu: The high-priced free agent bust who spent one inglorious season with the Raptors. Of the many moves Colangelo has made, this is the one that you'd think he thinks would merit a do-over. Well, almost, but not quite.

“If I was given all the same circumstances, and again no foresight as to what the outcome was, I still think I'd make the same deal. So am I sorry or do I regret doing it after the fact? Yeah. But you can never operate with that foresight, you can prepare and you have as much information and you put that information into the equation and you try to decide what that outcome might be but that outcome has to play itself out. And in this business, there are so many variables that are a factor.”

As for Chris Bosh, this year's other big departure, it remains to be seen just how crippling a long-term blow it will be for the Raptors and Colangelo. The story won't go away this season, impacting the present and worrying fans about the future.

“Last year, there was a pretty strong notion that we should either trade Chris Bosh and get something for him while we could or do something to try to keep him.

“Well, we went out and arguably made a pretty big splash.There was a lot of discussion about it, mostly positive, that came about when we went and got the Turkoglu transaction completed. Again, it was an attempt to try to make the most of the situation that we had under present circumstances and as recently as Feb. 15, when we went to Dallas for the All-Star Game, we were sitting on a franchise record-tying 29 wins and everything seemed kind of on-track.

“A lot changed from that point forward, some of it explainable, some of it not explainable. I don't want to rehash the past and the reasons and what might have been but it fell at that point.

“Even the notion that we didn't get anything for the departure of Chris Bosh is a little bit of a misconception in that we still have what's known as the trade exception as a possible means of getting better or acquisition of assets, players or assets; and we have our pick back, which was given up previously, and another pick that could potentially be packaged or utilized in some other way.

“We didn't get nothing but I can assure you, for all the people who say we should have gotten something when we could, there weren't a lot of deals that were presented to us or that were available to us even 12 months earlier. ... There was never a deal where we would have said, ‘Wow, we really need to trade Chris to get this done.' Especially not knowing what the future held.

“We played it out. We didn't exactly replace 24 (points per game) and 11 (rebounds per game) but we took a step in the direction towards recovering from that departure and loss by getting some things back and also having less financial restraints.”

The Raptors have one of the most passionate fan bases in the NBA. And like most fans, they want success, hard work and a likeable team. Colangelo sees and hears it everywhere he goes.

“I love the fans in this city and I love the passion that they show for the sport and for the Raptors in particular. I love the fact that no matter where we go, there's a following of Raptors fans. And the people I interact with, the people that I see, the people I meet in the streets — and I am out a lot to see people — they've been fantastic and supportive. I can't ask for anything more than that.”