DALLAS -- Jason Terry, in the final season of his contract, realizes his desire to retire as a member of the Dallas Mavericks and reality might not intersect.

"For me, personally, I'm playing for 29 teams," Terry said after the Mavs snapped a three-game losing streak with a win Tuesday night over the Washington Wizards. "I want to stay here. I want to be here, but every night I'm on the floor I'm on a job interview."

Terry requested a contract extension after the lockout was lifted, but that was never considered by a front office determined to create as much salary-cap space as possible this summer. Jason Kidd is among the other core members of the Mavs' title team in a contract year, and center Brendan Haywood and small forward Shawn Marion are candidates for the amnesty clause or to be traded.

Kidd, who is also in a contract year, understands exactly where Terry is coming from.

"I've just got a handful of teams," Kidd deadpanned, dropping a pretty strong hint that he'll only consider contenders as a 39-year-old free agent this summer.

"Just like last year, we had a lot of guys who were free agents and you see the success or reward that they got from other teams," Kidd said. "That goes for everybody. You can probably exclude Dirk from that audition, but everybody's out here auditioning for other teams because you never know who needs your skills or who's going to pay you the money that you're looking for.

"So I agree with Jet, but I'm in a different bracket. I'm in the lower end with the age group. Who needs an older guy?"

It's been an up-and-down year for Terry, the longest-tenured member of the Mavericks other than Dirk Nowitzki. The Mavs' sixth man is scoring 14.8 points per game -- his lowest average since 2004-05, his first season in Dallas -- and has uncharacteristically struggled on the road.

Terry, who prides himself on being an outstanding clutch performer, has been benched twice during crunch-time this week. He expressed frustration after sitting the last several minutes of last week's loss to the Phoenix Suns, when guard Rodrigue Beaubois missed two potential tying shots on the last possession, and vented about the general state of the Mavs after a loss to the Sacramento Kings the next night.

"I don't know about the frustration level, but it's time for change," Terry said in Sacramento. "You can only look at something for so long and you're getting the same result. So at what point are you going to change or are you going to ride it out?