Remember how this was supposed to be the year the Raptors came in from out of the cold? Everyone says that the addition of former Suns general manager Bryan Colangelo would finally take Toronto out of its malaise, but so far I’m having trouble seeing my way through the ice storm.

The Raptors seemed to be back on the path to respectability after they finally exiled the despised Rob Babcock last spring, especially when they replaced him with the highly respected Colangelo.

He came in with a glittering résumé, having made the brilliant moves that turned the Suns into contenders overnight. He was the one who traded Stephon Marbury for cap space, signing Steve Nash, drafted Amare Stoudemire and Leandro Barbosa, and traded for Boris Diaw, and most figured he’d be able to keep his winning streak alive north of the border.

He also went into his new job with some considerable assets at his disposal. Thanks to good fortune in the draft lottery, Toronto held the no. 1 pick in the draft. And thanks to the ceaseless generosity of one Isiah Thomas, the Raptors entered the summer with about $12 million in cap space via the Jalen Rose trade.

Just a few months into the project, however, I’m beginning to have my doubts.

Let’s first start with the defensible moves. The Raptors had two important decisions to start their summer, and handled both fairly well. With the first pick in the draft they took Italian forward Andrea Bargnani, the best prospect in a weak crop. Bargnani’s translated stats from the Euroleague last season indicate he’ll already be a solid pro, and he’s only 20-years-old. Besides, the rest of this season’s draft class was nothing to write home about.

The other important decision involved free agent point guard Mike James.James came off a career year last season, averaging 20.3 points per game, but he’s 31 years old and had never played nearly this well before. For a rebuilding team like Toronto to invest heavily in James would have been a foolish step, and they rightly let other teams bid for him while focusing their attention in different areas.

One other, less noted move by Colangelo also made great sense. He dealt epic draft bust Rafael Araujo to Utah for forward Kris Humphries. Humphries isn’t exactly a star in the making either, but he’s young enough (21) that he might eventually become a player, and the Raps added half a million in cap space on the trade.

That’s a nice start for Colangelo — three solid moves with Bargnani, James, and Humphries. But as for the rest of the program, I don’t get it.

For starters, Colangelo pulled the trigger on two trades that don’t make a lot of sense. The first one sent forwards Matt Bonner and Eric Williams to San Antonio in return for center Rasho Nesterovic. Certainly, Nesterovic provides an element that’s needed in Toronto – he can defend the basket and gives the team its first “true” center in years. On the other hand, he’s not very good and is basically no more than a halfway decent backup center at this point. Additionally, he has a poison pill contract, and Bonner was one of Toronto’s better players last season.

That deal, as one-sided as it seems, is more defensible than the trade of Charlie Villanueva to Milwaukee for point guard T.J. Ford.While the Raptors needed help at the point since they weren’t re-signing James, it’s hard to see how Ford will fill the void. The dimunitive speedster, generously listed at 6-feet, 165 pounds, is a huge defensive liability because of his size. Plus, he has a spinal condition that makes him an enormous injury risk.

But worst of all, he’s just not that good. While Ford’s speed can titillate, he’s much less effective offensively than most imagine. He’s an extremely poor shooter who allows defenses to sag back and double-team freely, and his assist rate isn’t as high as one might expect for a player of this type. Basically, he’s a backup-quality player being thrust into a starting role for no apparent reason. As one NBA exec said to me, his absolute best-case scenario is that he becomes Brevin Knight.

Moreover, Toronto paid a huge price to acquire Ford.Villanueva finished second in last year’s rookie of the year voting and is one of the league’s most promising young forwards.While the Raptors had overlap at this position with Villanueva and Bosh, it didn’t mean Toronto needed to give away a rising star for peanuts. And the salary implications hurt, too — Ford will be a restricted free agent next summer, while Villanueva was under contract for three more seasons at a bargain rate.

Meanwhile, the Raptors have made little headway with that salary cap nest egg. The Raptors’ only two additions were two European-based players, Anthony Parker and Jorge Garbajosa. Parker, an American, has played in Israel for several years and has been among the best players in Europe. Garbajosa, from Spain, has enjoyed similar success in his native country. The two also signed fairly small contracts, so the risk is limited.

Despite that, I’m not a fan of these moves. If you’re not going to sign a 31-year-old Mike James, why would you turn around and spend the money on a 31-year-old Anthony Parker? And Garbajosa, though younger at 28, also appears to have his best basketball behind him. His numbers from the Euroleague the past two seasons were nowhere near as good as they were in his younger days, and he faces a major adjustment in acclimating to the longer NBA three-point line.Parker showed a similar decline last season, and at his age, it may be a permanent one. Additionally, he already failed once in the NBA — that was how he ended up in Europe in the first place.

So in a summer where the Raptors looked to get much, much better, they may actually have made themselves a bit worse. At forward, they traded Bonner and Villanueva for Bargnani and Nesterovic. And at point guard, they traded James for T.J. Ford. Other than that, they’ve only made a few moves around the edges, with the two new Europeans unlikely to be more than role players.

For a team with the first overall pick and a horde of cap space, I expected much more — especially from a general manager that came in with such impressive credentials. Raptors fans were hoping the dark days would finally come to an end this year, but so far it’s looking like they’ll have another long, cold winter.

jhollinger@nysun.com