Jeff Green is a basketball Rorschach test.

Some look at him and see a 6-foot-9, athletic player with the ability to score inside and out and guard multiple positions. Others see a poor rebounder whose 3-point shooting has tumbled dramatically and who isn’t big enough to guard fours and not quick enough to handle three’s. 

The Celtics are obviously banking on the former.

“Jeff Green is a terrific player,” Danny Ainge said in an interview on WEEI hours after the trade with Oklahoma City went down. “He’s a versatile player. He’s playing 37 minutes on one of the top teams in the West as a starter. He’s 24 years old. He brings length and athleticism to the game and great versatility.”

There’s no mystery about the other player acquired in the deal. Nenad Krtsic is a big center who can step outside and make jump shots. He averaged 7.7 points and 4.5 rebounds in about 21 minutes per night for the Thunder. He’s also relatively healthy, which is no small thing for this team.

While Krstic is not anywhere near Kendrick Perkins’ class as a rebounder, defender or screener, he is knocking down 16-23 foot jumpers at a 44 percent clip and will be able to stretch the floor for the Celtics. Defensively, if Kevin Garnett could effectively hide Shaquille O’Neal in the team's scheme, he can help Krstic.

One side benefit of this trade is that it will help cure one of the Celtics’ biggest liabilities: turnovers. Krstic is far more careful with the ball than Perkins and Green is also a low-turnover frontcourt player.

(As an aside: Nate Robinson’s departure is a classic addition by subtraction move. While he had his moments, and should be commended for doing his best to fit in and play through his own injuries, Robinson just didn’t get it done consistently.)

But Green is obviously the real prize in this trade, and also the wild card. Celtics coach Doc Rivers compared him to James Posey, which is accurate regarding the two players' roles with the Celtics, but not in terms of their abilities.

The Celtics plan to use Green as a super-sub off the bench who can backup everyone from Ray Allen to Garnett and obviously Paul Pierce. That may be the perfect role for someone like Green, who was miscast as a power forward playing 37 minutes a game in Oklahoma City.

His obvious weakness is rebounding and there has been talk in Oklahoma City for some time that Serge Ibaka would be a better fit at the position. That’s what made this a no-brainer trade for the Thunder, who were not sold on signing Green to an extension and willing to let him become a restricted free agent after this season.

But Green does offer an array of skills that has been sorely missing from the Celtics' second unit for as long as Posey left after the 2008 championship season. While Posey was a rangy defender, he offered only one real skill on offense: the ability to make open 3-pointers.

Green hasn’t shown that kind of consistency from beyond the arc. In his second season he made 39 percent of his 3-pointers, but that dropped to 33 percent last season and a tick over 30 percent this year. Unlike Posey, Green can score inside – he’s shooting a career-best 74 percent at the rim. He’s also someone who can run with Rajon Rondo.

“He can play the four. He can play the three,” Ainge said. “He defends multiple positions. He can shoot the 3-ball. He can post up smaller guys. He’s a terrific passer and he brings length and athleticism to our team and experience.”

Green will immediately become Paul Pierce’s backup and then Rivers can swing him from the two to the four depending on the matchups and foul trouble. That’s the real key to this trade from the Celtics' perspective.

Green allows them flexibility and against the likes of Miami and Chicago, that versatility will be a major asset. The Celtics were built in the offseason for size, and this move can be seen as a tacit acknowledgement by Ainge that the priority has shifted with Orlando’s slide.

Of course, if they run into the Lakers in the finals …

But they have to get there first and Green offers more matchup possibilities against teams that don’t feature traditional centers. A bench rotation of Delonte West, Glen Davis, Green and whatever center is able to walk is a massive upgrade over what Rivers had been forced to choose from. Green also offers legitimate injury protection if anything happens to Pierce or Garnett.

There’s also the chance that, freed from the responsibility of playing a traditional position that didn’t play to his strengths, Green’s true potential will be unlocked in a new role. That’s merely a projection, however. It all depends on how you look at Jeff Green.