Yes. Just leave it be upon install. Contacts are defaulted not to sync.
Google Sync rocks. You always know your important dates are backed up safely on Google. I love it. I use the contacts as well and it makes a direct extension of my gmail contacts to my berry.
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There are options for it even after installed if you wish. First thing I did after I installed it was set it to manually update (I prefer that) and I set it to not sync contacts only the calendar.