Philadelphia 76ers GM Elton Brand is confident about his team and their abilities and expects the Sixers to make a run come playoff time.

Elton Brand has a good reason to be confident in his team. The Sixers have an excellent record of 22-12 approaching Christmas, good enough for the third seed in the Eastern Conference. Only the Toronto Raptors and Milwaukee Bucks hold better records in the East, and Philly will be looking to leapfrog them by the end of the season.

The team has had mixed results in their most recent games. They beat Toronto badly, but the Raptors were without three of their key players in Kawhi Leonard, Serge Ibaka, and Jonas Valanciunas.

Matchups against better teams like the Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs have gone poorly. The Sixers lost to both teams by double digits, which is not an encouraging sign for a team that will have to match up against squads of this caliber when the playoffs start.

The Sixers have a great core made up of Ben Simmons, Jimmy Butler, and Joel Embiid. These are three of the best players in the league, but Philadelphia continues to struggle with depth.

Aside from J.J Reddick, no one outside of the big three averages double-digit points. The Sixers do not have a bench player who has stepped up and provided consistent quality minutes.

Even without much bench production, the Sixers had a solid season so far. They will continue to lean heavily on their big three, and it might just result in a few playoff series wins.