What we can learn from Sixers' preseason opener | David Murphy

The Grizzlies are the first guinea pig in the Ben Simmons experiment. More than anything, that's the story of Wednesday night's preseason opener at the Wells Fargo Center. We know so little about the identity of this Sixers team that every time it takes the court in the early going there will be some level of intrigue. With regard to Simmons, the question is two-fold:

1) How will coaches attempt to match up against him?

2) How will Simmons look against the variety of defenders they throw at him?

In Sunday's open scrimmage, we got our first extended look at the 2016 No. 1 overall pick in more than a year, and he spent 20-plus minutes showing why the Sixers are so confident that he will thrive as their primary ballhandler. He looks remarkably smooth off the dribble with a length and strength that allows him to finish at the rim, plus a natural passing ability and feel for the game.

Chances are, we'll see Simmons matched up against a variety of options: JaMychal Green is a versatile defender who figures to start at power forward for Memphis, though 6-foot-7 James Ennis is another option. The Grizzlies could also give 6-foot-5, 230-pound shooting guard Wayne Selden a look.

Whatever happens, David Fizdale will be the first coach to go on record with his blueprint for defending a 6-foot-10 point guard.

Here's what else we'll be watching Wednesday night:

In Jerryd Bayless and Markelle Fultz, the Sixers feel they have two players capable of playing either guard spot. In J.J. Redick, they have a shooting guard with an elite three-point stroke. In T.J. McConnell, they have a pure point guard whose skills would seem to mesh the least with those of Simmons. Wednesday's game against the Grizzlies will be the first step in a long feeling-out process that Brett Brown cautions could extend well into the season.

"These games, tomorrow, are kind of going to be him grading us on how we play with each other," McConnell said after practice on Tuesday afternoon.

It is a lot easier to project how veterans like Bayless and Redick will look alongside Simmons than it is younger, more ball-dominant players like Fultz and McConnell. The Sixers liked Fultz at No. 1 in this year's draft in part because of his shooting ability — he connected on 41 percent of his three-point attempts in his one season at the University of Washington — which they thought would mesh in an offense that featured Simmons as the primary ballhandler. Fultz's shooting mechanics have been a topic of conversation recently: the rookie apparently spent part of the offseason tinkering with his form, prompting an admission from Brown that the team would be working with him to get him back to where he was coming out of college. Brown later played down the significance of the issue, but it will certainly be a something to watch against the Grizzlies, particularly when Fultz is on the court with Simmons.

The 20-year-old from Turkey was one of the stars of Sunday's open scrimmage, connecting on four of his five three-point attempts. He didn't seem to have an obvious path to regular minutes heading into training camp, but it will be interesting to see how he looks in whatever opportunities he gets against NBA competition.

He's a thread that runs through all of the aforementioned things. The Sixers have been practicing for a week, but now he'll get a chance to read and react to the variables offered by the flow of an actual game against an opposing coach.

"You want to get a little bit further ahead, a little more advanced on who you're playing, who you're starting, how you're gonna get J.J. a shot, what you're gonna do with Ben, watch how other NBA teams, other NBA players guard Ben, how they match up with Ben," Brown said on Tuesday. "It's kind of never-ending what we're going to learn."