Raptorland might as well be the new Bizarro World, the old cartoon planet where bad is good and ugly is beautiful. The GM once heralded as a saviour suddenly needs saving.

It was not the crux of the O'Neal deal that was unnerving; bringing in the aging big man was a bad idea from the get-go and this corner backed his shipment.

But when the trade was originally leaked to the media, it didn't include the Raptors sending away Moon or a conditional first-round draft pick, add-ons which seemed to make the taking back of Banks's contract all the more punitive.

And more to the point, Colangelo, until Friday night, hadn't made it clear that he's leaning toward maintaining the status quo this summer, of re-signing players from the list of Toronto's free-agents-to-be, among them Marion, Anthony Parker, Joey Graham and Carlos Delfino. Suddenly, the same-old is new again.

What of the chemistry issues that might crop up if the soon-to-be-31-year-old Marion, who is making $17 million (U.S.) this season, signs for far less this summer?

If he was unhappy being a top-three, top-dollar player on a championship contender in sunny Phoenix a few years back, which he reportedly was, what are the odds he's a happy camper for fewer dollars on a worse team in his first cold-weather home? Grumblers are the new glue guys.

What about defence and rebounding, the chronic unaddressed weaknesses on a club with an ever-skimpier interior presence? Colangelo actually spoke the words Jake and Voskuhl in assessing the front-court depth.

And even if the GM uses the mid-level salary-cap exception to land a big man in the mould of Rasho Nesterovic, the club is, at best, back to where it was when it was clobbered by the Orlando Magic in the first round of the playoffs last year. Small is big.

What of Banks's bad contract? Colangelo spoke of being "stacked" at point guard - but doesn't "stacked" usually imply a surplus of NBA-worthy talent? Shallow is deep.

This, for sure, if obvious: If Colangelo was actually trying to close the gap between his squad and the elite few that rule the Eastern Conference, he'd be thinking bigger, trading players when their stocks are up instead of when they're distressed.

He wouldn't be assessing his roster, as he's been doing of late, as though it's a who's-hot list, pointing, say, to a handful of good games from Roko Ukic and Jason Kapono as evidence of their worth.

Nobody's saying Colangelo can't clean up this mess. Nobody is saying this move and the summer re-signings won't be enough to convince Chris Bosh to re-sign in 2010 (although it's pretty clear that locking up Bosh for a maximum deal while continuing to refuse to exceed the luxury tax will not, barring a moment of two or managerial brilliance, leave enough money to build anything better than a middle-of-the-pack club). Nobody's saying it's easy.

All anyone's saying is there's been a clear devolution here, a 47-win team in 2006-07 turned into a 41-win squad turned into a team that's on pace for 31 wins this season. And if down is up, if a roster tweak is an overhaul, then best-case mediocrity is the new reality.