Not sure how Pierce is having an all star level season since he isn't really even in the running for being named an all star. He is shooting atrociously for his standards and instead of working for better shots, he keeps firing up garbage. He is very hit and miss this season with 10 of his 40 games under 35% shooting and half of those under 30%. I think his "low" stats are misleading because he is so hot and cold now that he is costing us games when he isn't on. Bad shots and poor defense don't put him at an all star level.
Yeesh ... that is an ugly stat.
Even uglier, Jeff Green has been below 35% in 15 of 40 games (and below 30% in 11 of them), and he doesn't shoot the lower percentage (but higher efficiency) 3PT as well as Pierce does.
EDIT: Pierce had a TS% below .350 in three of 40 games. Green was below that anemic mark in 11 of 40 games.
I am not convinced that comparing starters minutes / stats with a reserve is a good way to determine if they could be a good fit in the starting lineup or not. Last year AB had pretty poor stats before he was inserted into the starting lineup. Not saying that Green will provide that spark, just that it isn't apples to apples comparing PP and JG's stats.
I don't think there's any real reason to suspect he'd play better. Again, his production has been exactly consistent with his production in 2010 and 2011, across both starting and reserve roles.
It's not like Green never plays alongside starters. If there's some spark that he's capable of providing, I'm not sure why there's been so little evidence of it over the first half of the season.