"Some say point guards are born and not bred. The position is too dependent on intangibles, too innate to teach. The great ones have something extra, something God-given.

And then there's the Warriors' Stephen Curry, among the bred.

"I'm a natural point guard," Utah's Deron Williams said. "I think I was born to play point guard. But some guys can make the adjustment. Since he's gotten to the NBA, I think Steph's done a great job. He balances his scoring and gets his assists. He can pass. He just has a great knack for the game."

When Curry, 22, gained national fame, leading Davidson to the Elite Eight of the 2008 NCAA tournament, he wasn't the point guard. That title belonged to senior Jason Richards. Three years later, Curry is a starting point guard in the NBA.

While many of the great NBA point guards have been playing the position since they could put on a jersey, Golden State's second-year point guard is learning arguably the game's hardest position on the fly.

For him, that means a lot of work and hard lessons. For the franchise, that means patience and intelligent development.

"He's got a ways to go," said Warriors assistant coach Jerry Sichting, who played both guard positions during his 10-year NBA career. "It's like two steps forward and one step back a lot of times, but that's not out of the ordinary. It's the hardest position. But he's got all the skills to do it.

"The talk around the league, when I talk to other coaches and other scouts, is everybody loves him. It just takes a lot of time, a lot of experience to be out there. We're talking about a guy who hasn't played the position before. It's new to him."

Curry's numbers are up from last season in many major categories: points per game (18.4), assists (6.0), field goal percentage (48.3). They are down in some good places, such as turnovers (2.9) and minutes per game (33.5).

In many ways, those numbers alone are impressive -- especially for a guy 1?1/2 seasons into his career. But they don't fully paint the picture of the kind of season Curry is having. The growing pains. The mistakes. The inconsistency."