by By Gary Peterson Staff columnist , Contra Costa Times

First of all, cool your jets. Yes, Stephen Curry is as advertised. He can handle, pass and has the range to accommodate the 4-point shot should the NBA ever decide to go in that direction.

And in two weeks he may be house hunting in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The NBA draft is rarely a simple deal with the Warriors . The more Don Nelson is involved, the more complicated it gets. Even before he took Curry with the seventh pick in Thursday's draft, there was a rumored trade between the Warriors and Suns that would remake the face of both teams.

In that trade, the Warriors would give up center Andris Biedrins, forward Brandan Wright, guard Marco Belinell, possibly swingman Kelenna Azubuike and the seventh pick (Curry), with the Suns sending power forward deluxe Amare Stoudemire to Oakland.

Oh, sorry: Golden State.

The upside for Phoenix? That would be enabling general manager Steve Kerr's apparent fetish for acquiring ex- Warriors . If Biedrins, Wright and Belinelli do make their way to the Valley of the Sun, they'll find Jason Richardson and Matt Barnes there to greet them.

Whereas it would give the Warriors that monstrous big man for whom Nelson eternally lusts but never seems to find. That's if the rumored trade happens.

For reasons both complex and uninteresting (think of the warning label on a bottle of cough syrup), such a trade cannot be officially consummated until July 8. For reasons beyond that, this particular trade may qualify as a nonstarter.

See, Stoudemire is coming up on the final year of his contract. Thursday night, for the second time this week, Warriors GM Larry Riley expressed reservations about acquiring such a player. Reason being: You might pay through the nose and both ears for a guy who bolts after one season.

"It would be a hard thing for me to be convinced of," Riley said. "I'm not saying I couldn't be."

The scenario that should concern Warriors fans is the one in which Stoudemire demands an extension as a condition of the trade. A maximum contract for Stoudemire would fall just south of $100 million over five years. That sound you hear is the head of Warriors president Robert Rowell moving vigorously from side to side as if caught in a paint shaker.

But let's forge bravely onward assuming this trade could actually happen. It would give the Warriors a starting lineup of (doing some assuming here) Stephen Jackson and Monta Ellis in the backcourt, Stoudemire and Anthony Randolph at forward and Ronny Turiaf at center. On the face of it, that would herald an intriguing and welcome departure from the tiresome small-ball approach that has never taken a Nelson-coached Warriors team past the second round of the playoffs.

But here's another concerning scenario Stoudemire had microfracture surgery on his left knee in 2005 and sustained two injuries to his right eye last season. The second required surgery to repair a partially detached retina.

That's a lot of moving parts to a trade that is still three parts rumor and two parts unnamed sources. So in the interest of going with what we know for sure, let's get back to Curry.

"Everything we saw showed us he's a quality young man and a good Basketball player," Riley said. "He's a guy who's going to fit in quite nicely the style we play here."

At point guard, the Warriors' greatest position of need?

"We'll train him to play some as a backup to Monta Ellis, and some to play the two-guard," Riley said. "This does not mean he's been drafted to take over as the point guard of the future. You never know where things are going to go."

"Hopefully," Curry said via conference call, "I'll go to sleep (tonight) as a Warrior."

Atta boy. It's good to dream.

Contact Gary Peterson at gpeterson@bayareanewsgroup.com

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