Curry selection disappoints

OAKLAND - Is that all there was? I’m talking about the Warriors’ draft pick, No. 7, point guard Stephen Curry. I mean, are we supposed to feel excited? The Warriors needed to knock our socks off, do something daring, acquire a team-changer. Did they do that? No way. They got a nice little player. The key adjectives are nice and little.

In the interest of fair reporting, let’s start with the nice things about Curry. He was the best shooter in the draft. You know and I know that Don Nelson loves a shooter. Curry is a better long-range shooter than Monta Ellis. He will give Ellis competition at point guard — at least that’s the theory — and it’s always good to have competition at a position even if, in this case, Ellis is the best player on a distinctly under-talented team.

When Curry and Ellis play together they will put a defensive burden on the opposition. That is nice. If Curry turns out to be better than Ellis — he won’t — the Warriors could trade Ellis down the line for a quality big man.

I know what you’re thinking. Nelson doesn’t know how to coach a big man. But that problem — Nelson mishandling the big guy the Warriors may get for Ellis — looms in the future so don’t get fixated on it.

OK, was that nice enough for you? Now let’s talk about not so nice.

The Warriors took yet another guard. They just unloaded Jamal Crawford, eliminating one guard. But they recently traded for Speedy Claxton and Acie Law, and now they’ve drafted Curry. Add three guards.

That’s a net gain of two guards. The Warriors are crawling with guards. Nelson is guard crazy. He’d play five guards if he could. Forget small ball. He loves shrimp ball.

More not so nice: Curry is a pretty good athlete. Ellis is an off-the-chart-terrific athlete. There’s no comparison between them. I don’t believe any real competition ever will materialize.

I asked general manager Larry Riley if Curry is the Warriors’ point guard of the future. I thought he gulped. “We’ll train him to play backup,” he said. “This does not mean he’s been drafted to take over as our point guard of the future. You never know where things are going to go in four, five or six years.”

Let’s see if we understand. Riley was saying Curry is a backup — a backup for crying out loud — and may always be a backup, although that could change in four years minimum. Good grief.

When asked if Curry will be an “impact” rookie, Riley said, “He’s going to play for us as a rookie. I don’t know exactly how soon but he’s going to be a contributor as a rookie. It might be December. It might be January.”

So don’t expect much from Curry next season. Don’t expect much at all. When he and Ellis play together the Warriors will have the worst defensive backcourt in the league. Things like crummy defense never seem to worry Nelson, although they should.

But there is something else. Of course, there’s something else. On TV they kept saying the Warriors are talking to Phoenix about a blockbuster trade, although Riley refused to talk about this. The Warriors need a blockbuster. They need to blow the roof off their arena. They need to make a statement. They need to matter.

The trade is Andris Biedrins, Marco Belinelli and Brandan Wright for Amare Stoudemire. This would change the Warriors for the better.

Stoudemire can play center or power forward. He is a real talent, a scorer, a rebounder and a game-changer and he would have the largest impact of any Warrior since Rick Barry and Nate Thurmond.

On TV they said this deal — if it is a deal — can’t get completed until July 8. And this is where Nelson comes in. He’s supposed to be a mad genius. He’s supposed to make things happen out of nothing. Now that he doesn’t have to tiptoe around Chris Mullin, he’s supposed to do something large and brilliant and out of the box.

Getting Stoudemire would be monumental. Let Nelson do it. Let him show he still has it in him. Let him show he cares.

If the Warriors make this trade, they can keep Curry or they can trade him. Who cares? He is a mere footnote to what the Warriors really need.

“I think it’s going to be an exciting brand of basketball,” Riley said of the Warriors 2009-2010. “I think we will be improved.”

Not yet.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular go to the Cohn Zohn at blog.pressdemocrat.com/cohn. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at 521-5486 or lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.