Here are Lloydybird’s thoughts from what was an eventful opening day – in no particular order of importance:

• Why can’t we have an opening day Smorgasbord? After all the waiting over the off-season, surely the NBA can put more than two games on the slate, can’t they? Having 30 teams and giving us only 4 is like eating chocolate with the wrapper on.

• Jayson Taytum is going to struggle from the field this season, but he’s a sneaky good athlete and rebounder. Watching him gracefully coast his way to the rack on his debut was a pleasure to watch. His solid pre-season rebounding numbers also look like translating. However, his over-reliance on his mid-range game will put a cap on what he can do… for now.

• Jaylen Brown is going to have a much bigger role this season – especially now that  Hayward is out. His shooting won’t be great, but his ability to create good looks and opportunities should help him break out a bit this season. His 25 points (on 11 of 23 from the field) were great to watch — but need to be tempered by his 2 of 9 shooting from three.

• Boston could have done with more from its back-up undersized bench fat guy. With Guerschon Yabusele out due to illness, Semi Ojeleye delivered a big, ummm, fat donut in his 9 minute debut. Mmmm, donuts. Not what Boston needed in a tight game.

• LeBron’s ankle looks just fine – says 29 points, 16 rebounds, 9 assists and 2 blocks in 41 minutes.

• Marcus Smart sure has a lot of dickhead swagger for a guy that cannot shoot to save his life. His 12 points on 5 of 16 shooting badly hurt my eyes. Please make it stop.

• Cleveland fans are going to get mighty sick of their Zimmerframe backcourt well before the end of the season. Lost among Rose’s occasional awesome drives and Wade’s blocked shot heroics was the fact that these two combined delivered 22 points on 8 of 24 shooting in 59 minutes. That’s putrid and it nearly cost the Cavs victory after being up by as much as 18. One of them needs to hit the bench… and quickly.

• Chris Paul is struggling. He didn’t look particularly great during the pre-season – and opening day was no different. Any time he came off the court, the Rockets surged – to the point where he wasn’t on the court during crunch time. That’s right, Chris freakin’ Paul was benched for crunch time. Paul is arguably the league’s smartest player and should find a way to adapt, but the early signs couldn’t be worse.

• James Harden is completely and utterly un-guardable. Get too close and he’ll get cooking and either blow by you or step back for a three. Stay back too far and he’ll cook some more and nail the three. Whatever choice you make, you’re gonna get baked.

• Eric Gordon has gotten back a little bit of spring in his step. Those dunks are downright nasty: