General Manager Randy Pfund confirmed Friday that the Heat is in a holding pattern regarding a contract offer to Clippers free-agent small forward Lamar Odom.

"It's been obvious we have interest in Lamar," Pfund said of the forward who visited AmericanAirlines Arena on Wednesday. "It's an ongoing negotiation, ongoing evaluation. There are some triggers in the next week that probably will bring some more information into the equation. There is legitimate interest."

Having been rebuffed last week by the Clippers with an offer sheet to power forward Elton Brand, Pfund indicated the Heat first will wait to see how Los Angeles deals with pending offer sheets for guards Corey Maggette and Andre Miller from Utah and Denver, respectively. A decision whether to match on each is due by Thursday.

"Everybody is kind of waiting to see what will happen with those two," Pfund said.

Unlike with Brand, the Heat does not appear poised to offer Odom the maximum of $10.96 million as a 2003-04 starting point for an offer sheet that must be for at least three years.

The Heat has about $11.8 million in cap space, with Pfund saying he already is speaking to other prospects about a portion of that total.

As with the Brand bid, the Clippers would have 15 days to match any Heat bid for Odom. That could tie up the Heat's cap space until Aug. 16, or later.