Last night the Philadelphia 76ers lost once again, this time at home to the Utah Jazz 93-80. That's three losses in a row and 4 out of the last five. Given what the Sixers paid for Elton Brand and Andre Iguodala this off season, 2-5 is probably not the start that team owner Ed Snider had envisioned when he was introducing them at press conferences after signing with the Sixers for a combined $140million or so. Prognosticators had Ed Stephanski already receiving his General Manager of the Year award for his work this offseason in Philadelphia and many others were saying that Philly would give the Celtics a run in the Eastern Conference and push them for the Atlantic title. Well, less than 10% of the season is gone for Philly and they already find themselves 4-1/2 games behind the world champs. So what is wrong in Philadelphia?

Well it turns out, maybe more than some people thought. I've seen two of their games this year and the problems appear to be many:

1.) Andre Iguodala, a growing force at small forward in the league the past few years is now being asked to play shooting guard. He looks awkward and out of place there and isn't adjusting well to having to play a quicker set of opposition.

2.) The offense is being run through Elton Brand and has bogged down. Gone is the pace setting running offense that was starting to be so effective last year. Instead almost every possession has Brand being the second player to touch the ball and with teams doubling him the Sixers offense is stagnant. Often Brand can't find the pass out of the double and when he does the shots aren't falling. The Sixers may as well also be playing 4 on 5 on the offensive end for all the touched Dalembert is getting there. Turning the ball over at a rate of nearly 19 times a game isn't helping either.

3.) Andre Miller looks to be a half step slower this year. I can't put my finger on it but his play is off, his passing isn't as crisp, I'm not sure. It could be 9 years in the league and his 32 years catching up to him. But he appears either slower, or older, or out of shape or all of the above just a little bit.

4.) I think the Philadelphia bench is being exposed early on for being fairly bad and not deep. Louis Williams is a player and Maurice Speights shows promise but other than that, not good. At least thus far and from what I have observed.

5.) Their defense has been a lot more porous than that team that looked so good at the end of last year. They are only forcing around 13 turnovers a game and are giving up 95 points a game. Given the state of their offense, this is not a good sign for this team as when they started looking good last year so much of their offense was started through their defense.

I know it is early but I have to say, color me unimpressed with anything happening in the land of the 76ers with the exception of Thaddeus Young. This team will need time to grow and figure things out but it may also need some additions and possibly a subtraction to get where they eventually want to go. But in the meantime, they better figure it out fast because the last thing they'll want is to be an eighth seed this coming spring.