Zarko Cabarkapa and Leandro Barbosa, international men of mystery, made their first appearances Friday as members of the Suns, and everybody got through the news conference without a Serbian phrase book or an English-to-Portuguese dictionary.

The language barrier that the two first-round draft picks face in their rookie seasons is already a topic of discussion.

Both players demonstrated an ability to speak English, but neither was comfortable enough with it to go without an interpreter in his first meeting with the media.

"The reason my assistants aren't here now, they're taking Portuguese," Suns coach Frank Johnson cracked.

The Suns went through a similar adjustment after the 2000 draft when they selected Jake Tsakalidis, who speaks Russian and Greek, in the first round.

Like Cabarkapa and Barbosa, he could understand more than he could express. The Suns had an interpreter for Tsakalidis for about a week and then sent the interpreter home.

The Suns employed a bit of international espionage in picking Serbian forward Zarko Cabarkapa and trading for Brazilian guard Leandrinho Barbosa in Thursday night's NBA draft.

European scout Tim Shea followed the 6-foot-11-inch, 235-pound Cabarkapa around for two years before convincing the Suns to take him with the No. 17 overall choice in the draft.

"The Z Man," as Suns play-by-player announcer Al McCoy called him Thursday night, will be used at forward and center, but primarily as an outside-shooting small forward.

"I know everything about him, and he has a great upside," Shea said. "Like any No. 17 overall pick, there are some warts, such as his lack of physical strength. But he's a big guy who can step outside and shoot the three-pointer and open the lane for our slashing players like Shawn Marion and Stephon Marbury.

"He's never going to take on Shaquille O'Neal one on one," Shea said, "but he can match up with most of the power forwards and centers in the Western Conference."

The Suns brought the 6-3, 176-pound Barbosa, 20, in for a secret workout Wednesday night at Amer-ica West Arena before ma-king a deal with San Antonio, which took him at No. 28 overall, for his rights. The NBA champion Spurs took a future first-round pick for Barbosa.

"Finally, we were able to keep a secret, and we were able to bring him in at the last minute without anyone knowing about it," Suns president Bryan Co-langelo said. "We have loved Barbosa for a long time, enough to pick him at No. 17 if we had projected higher in the draft.

"A lot of teams were high on Barbosa until they heard he had a hip injury. We worked him out lightly Wednesday and were convinced he could come in and back up Marbury at point guard."

The NBA draft has always been shrouded in a certain amount of secrecy. The advent of the Internet has taken the deception, deceit and manipulation to reality-TV levels.

Agents float rumors about players moving up or down, usually to benefit their own clients.

General managers say they're interested in Player A, knowing they wouldn't take him if he were the last player on the board.

Meanwhile, they may bad-mouth another prospect they actually covet, hoping word will spread and the player will slide to them.

Whom to believe?

Usually, nobody.

There doesn't figure to be much drama at the top of Thursday's NBA draft, where the first three picks are pretty much nailed down.

Ohio prep sensation LeBron James is already down in ink next to the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have the first pick. Detroit general manager Joe Dumars is committed to Darko Milicic with the second pick, leaving Syracuse's Carmelo Anthony for Denver at No. 3.

After that, however, it could get dicey, with a number of teams looking to move up, others to move down. That leaves the Suns in a wait-and-see mode at No. 17.

If the draft unfolds as the Phoenix brain trust anticipates, though, the Suns should be picking from a group that includes point guards Luke Ridnour of Oregon, Reece Gaines of Louisville and Marcus Banks of Nevada-Las Vegas; forwards Nick Collison of Kansas, Brian Cook of Illinois and Serbia's Zarko Cabarkapa; and 18-year-old center-forward Sofoklis "Baby Shaq" Schortsanitis.

A player who might slide into their reach is Polish forward Maciej Lampe. As fallbacks, the Suns would look at guard Aleksandar Pavlovic and Frenchman Boris Diaw-Riffiod.

While the Suns have expressed an interest in adding a backup point guard this summer, they may be leaning more toward going big with the 17th pick of the first round in the June 26 NBA draft.

They took a second look at Illinois forward Brian Cook Thursday at the America West Arena practice court and came away impressed.

"He's a skilled guy," coach Frank Johnson said. "He can present some problems because he can shoot the ball and he can handle it and make plays off the dribble. Any time you've got a guy who can spread the floor, it causes problems.

"You saw it in the (NBA) Finals with San Antonio. As he gets better, Amare (Stoudemire) is going to create some double teams the way Tim Duncan does for the Spurs, and then you need to have somebody out there who can hit the shot."

Cook is a smooth, 6-foot-10, 240-pounder who averaged 20 points and 7.6 rebounds per game for the Illini. He was a career 51 percent shooter.

Although Cook isn't projected as a first-round pick in some mock drafts, it appears that he is moving up in the eyes of NBA player personnel evaluators.

"I think my stock is going up," Cook said. "I think I've got a little buzz going around about me, so hopefully everything goes well."

Like a lot of teams, the Suns would like to add a big man who can shoot, thus their interest in Zarko Caparkapa, a 6-11 forward from Serbia, if he's still on the board at No. 17.

The Suns have declared them-selves uninterested in UA signee Ndudi Ebi, who has until today to pull himself from the NBA draft and play college basketball for the Wild-cats.

The only question is if there are enough NBA teams that have given the Houston high school standout indications he will be taken in the first round, where players' contracts are guaranteed for three years.

If so, Ebi is expected to stay in the draft past today's deadline, hire an agent and forgo his college eligibility.

Although ESPN.com has spec-ulated that the Suns will take Ebi with their 17th overall pick in next week's draft, assuming Ebi does not pull out, Phoenix general manager Bry-an Colangelo said he has told UA coach Lute Olson that
his team will not take Ebi with
that selection.

Next to Luke Walton's name in scouting reports, there is a simple description that makes some people in the NBA feel nostalgic.

"I'd call him a throwback," Suns vice president and chief scout Dick Van Arsdale said.

There's no double meaning.

There's no dad, either.

"Nah, his father wasn't any good, anyway," Van Arsdale joked about Bill Walton, a Hall of Fame center who is better known these days for his commentary on NBA telecasts.

By throwback, Van Arsdale is talking about a draft prospect who suddenly is beginning to look a lot like a keeper.

Four NBA teams remain in search of a coach. And in what amounts to an inverted game of musical chairs, there appear to be more seats than proven candidates.

Scott Skiles, meanwhile, sits in Bloomington, Ind., wondering why nobody has bothered to at least discuss an opening with someone who won 60 percent of his games during one full season and portions of two others with the Phoenix Suns.

Skiles, who led Plymouth High School to the state championship in 1982 and played for the Indiana Pacers from 1987-89, wants back in the 29-man club. To do so, however, he'll have to win a public relations game that convinces other teams (1) he's alive, well and interested and (2) isn't an ogre who couldn't relate to his players.

"This is an information age we live in, but it's also a misinformation age," he said. "There's a lot of misperceptions about me."

Suns forward Amare Stoudemire will miss summer-league play next month while recovering from surgery on his right foot.

Stoudemire, the NBA Rookie of the Year, underwent surgery Thursday in New York for a bone condition that was causing inflammation - a bunion - at the base of his big toe.

The Suns don't expect him to be back on the playing floor until September. Training camp in Flagstaff doesn't begin until late October.

Stoudemire, the No. 9 pick in the previous draft, was often troubled by the condition last season. Nevertheless, he played in all 82 games, averaging 13.5 points and 8.8 rebounds. It also didn't stop the 20-year-old from becoming the first player in NBA history to go straight from high school to Rookie of the Year.

The Suns want to bring Scott Williams back for another season, meaning the club is looking at the same lineup of centers as last season: Williams and "Big Jake" Tsakalidis and "Little Jake" Voskuhl.

Williams would be looking at the same type of deal he got last season, a one-year, $1 million "veteran?s exception " to the salary cap, which actually would cost the Suns about $600,000 (with the rest of the money coming from a leaguewide pool).

The Suns also would like to work out a multi-year deal with the surprising Voskuhl, who ended up being their most effective center last season. For now, they?ll give him a oneyear qualifying offer of about $800,000 by the end of June, which guarantees his rights for next season, said club president Bryan Colangelo.

"You can look at both of them and say they made positive contributions, on and off the floor," Colangelo said.