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."