Well, I'll take from our extremely small sample size to try to make a point. In his first start without KG, against one of the worst teams in the league, Jeff shot 11/14, an uncommon stat line, for 31 points. In his second start, he scored just 14 points in a total blowout to the Bobcats, when he shot just 4-for-11. His third start was yet again against Charlotte, but this time it was a blowout for US; he scored just 10 points (5-9, 0-1 from three) while snagging five boards and giving four assists. He started again the next game where he exploded for 43 points in our loss to Miami, where he basically just made all his layups. He played off the bench for two games until KG got injured, so he came in in the Memphis game, playing a whopping 45 minutes... shooting 4-for-10 and 1-for-4 from three point land, with just 12 points (5 rebounds, 4 assists). The next game against the Knicks, he built off his performance with his first double-double of the season (19/10) albeit in a losing effort. He had 6 assists. The next game, he scored 21 against Cleveland, but despite shooting just 6-for-17 until the final shot, the team went to him for his second game winner of the year. (I suppose clutch shooters are those who can score when their team needs them most, whether they're shooting 0-10 or 10-10) Last game against Atlanta, our team really put trust into him as he took 20 field goals (second only to the Miami game with 21 FGAs)... despite not getting the calls he probably should have gotten, he shot an impressive 11-20, along with three 3-pointers for a total of 27 points.
For argument's sake, I'd like to only take into consideration his games thus far in the second half of the season. Throughout his career, he has outplayed his first-half stats in the second-half for each season, for whatever reason. In addition, he was returning from his heart surgery, definitely complicating his return. Finally, like most players on this team, he was having trouble adjusting while "consistently being inconsistent." So, I'll start by looking at his second-half stats (anything from game 42 onwards).
His points-per-FG average is 1.38 (definitely above average). He's averaging 40.7% on his three point attempts (definitely above average), thus his points-per-3PA is 1.22 (decent). His two-point field goal percentage is a pretty average 33.9% (comparing among starting small-forwards) and he's shooting an above career-average 84.4% from the charity stripe. All-in-all, these are at- or above-average stats for any small forward, and would make him a starting SF on every team in the league except maybe Miami, OKC, New York, Boston, Toronto, Indiana and Portland. What's bad is, he averages just 4.31RPG (pretty bad) in 31.2 minutes per game (so basically about 5 rebounds per 36 minutes), and 0.59ORPG (NOT above-average). In this period, Boston has been a ho-hum 18-14.
I'd say Jeff Green doesn't have anything extremely special in his stats... he has a 0.82 TO/A ratio (not really relevant), an impressive 1.25BPG that would put him tops on our team, he commits 2.5 fouls a game (average) and gets 0.75 steals per game (not relevant). That would rank him somewhere in the second tier of NBA small forwards, and likely not a top-5 SF in anyone's book, ever. But in addition to this, his defense has improved- it's been otherworldly at times against players like LeBron and a Synergy statistic ranks him a top-10 defender in the league (must be flawed, because that's impossible by anyone's standards). His basketball IQ has been underrated by nearly everyone, in my opinion, and he's one of the smartest players on our team for sure (his Georgetown coach once called him the smartest player he's ever coached). His arms are long and he can block drives and threes, which helps the team. His strides are long and he's a decent dunker who can get to the rack when he wants to. His corner three is developed and he's hitting it with regularity. His post moves are undeveloped, but his hook shot is to be trusted, and he's an above-average isolation player. He's tall for a small forward, which allows him to post up on smaller guys, while he's quicker than most power forwards, which allows him to attack. His handles are decent and he can be trusted to walk the ball up the floor. He's been clutch for the most part, throughout his career. He has scored above the 15-point plateau a lot, and he's scored double-digit points in 26 of our past 32 games.
So then, I took a look at the numbers he earned when shooting 11 field goals or more in a game. He's done it 18 times thus far, averaging 18.2 points per outing, in 32.8 minutes (6.77 field goals made in 13.67 attempts or 49.5%). Assuming he shoots at the same rate and percentage, if he shoots an average of 18 field goals a game (thus 324 field goals in these 18 games), he would score 23.97 points per game, in somewhere around 39 minutes. That's pretty close to 25 points and totally achievable, at his current scoring rate. Add in the fact that he's only 26 and just entering his prime, while still recovering from heart surgery. It is not out of the question at all, for him to reach such a scoring pace particularly on a team that is composed thus far of Rondo, Bradley, Lee, Bass, Terry, Sullinger, Melo. Of course, this is an inexact science, and obviously there are flaws like using a small sample size (18 games), teams game-planning for him, his potential improvement, how well Rondo and the team play, how much he actually shoots, whether there will be a new coach, who will be around him etc. But in the end, Green is a growing young man still recovering from a severe injury, and he's shown brilliance in spurts. He might never average 25ppg, he might average 26ppg, he might have another injury. He's stepping up right now as we prep for the playoffs, and it would not surprise me if he had a 30+ point game once in the playoffs. He's working hard, and that's all you can really ask out of a guy like Jeff. I love watching him play, and he's a pretty good fit for our team. He'll be an important piece in our future, either as a trade piece or a player. Go Jeff and go Celtics!